Draka

The story that Avjilan told me, which I told to Mak after Kalder had left with his prisoner and to Herald once she returned, would have been entirely unbelievable if not for the fact of my own existence. And the more he told me, the more excited I grew.

The most important thing, which anyone who did not know me would likely have rejected out of hand, was that Avjilan was not born as the man I met. Or he was, but the person I spoke to, who now lived in that body, was not. Mostly. It was a complicated situation of a kind with which I was intimately familiar. Because while the person I spoke to wasn’t the original Avjilan, that man was still there, in the background.

The current Avjilan, the man who I didn’t know but who had tried to kill me on no less than four occasions, had been born wrong. Those were his words. He didn’t elaborate on whether that meant gender, some deformity, or anything else, and I didn’t push. He had been born under another name that he never told me, and I didn’t ask. He had lived like that, trapped, as he described it, for almost fifty years, hating himself and always searching for some way to “rectify the gods’ mistake,” as he put it. And then he found it. After a lifetime of searching around and beyond the Sareyan Sea he found an enchanter who claimed to have rediscovered and mastered a method for transferring the soul of one being into another, based on ancient patterns from before the Collapse.

Avjilan had dismissed the enchanter as a charlatan or a madman. Who could believe such a thing? But then the enchanter had allowed him to watch as he performed the procedure, transferring the soul of an old man into the body of a young slave, and Avjilan couldn’t deny the evidence of his own eyes.

He was only an exorbitant sum of money and a body away from realizing his wishes.

The money was the lesser problem. Whatever was wrong with him, it hadn’t stopped Avjilan from amassing a small fortune as a monster hunter, and if he could make his dream come true, if he could finally truly live, as he put it, he would gladly spend every brass bit. No, the problem lay in procuring a body. And not just a body, but a living, willing person. Because if the target was not willing, the enchanter had explained, the procedure would fail, and the gods only knew what happened to the soul if the body rejected it.

Avjilan found his body in, well, Avjilan. The original. A singer from Faltha whom the current Avjilan had known for years, a close friend and confidant who loved him dearly and who, importantly, wanted to die.

“I tried to talk him out of it,” Avjilan said, his shame making it impossible for him to face me. “I swear that I did. But he had been weary of life for as long as I’d known him, and when I told him about what I’d found he begged me to use him. ‘I could finally be happy, knowing that I died to let you live,’ he told me. Gods help me, I was so weak. After only a few weeks I agreed. And while I can’t say that I regret it, while it worked out better than I could have hoped and he is constantly trying to reassure me that he regrets nothing, I’m still ashamed that I told him in the first place, knowing him as well as I did.”

“But he didn’t die?” I asked. “He’s still in there?”

“He is. And to our great surprise, since the day I took over he’s been happier than I’ve ever known him. He lived in fear of death, you see, and wanted it over with, on his own terms. But in the moment that he was to die, he understood how much he still wanted to live.” Avjilan stopped, then laughed. “He wants me to tell you that there is nothing better than realizing that you want to live, and then have that wish fulfilled while being completely freed from responsibility. The enchanter believes that wish was why he survived. Jil still welcomed me, but he wasn’t ready to go.” He chuckled without humor. “He’d never seen that before, he said, but he also admitted that I was only his fifth subject, so who knows?”

The last thing he told me, which he hadn’t revealed to the enchanter and which he only told me when I pressed him on that point specifically, was that he’d gained the original Avjilan’s Advancements, up to the fourth minor. Most of which were related to music, but it was still a secret that he begged me to let him take to his grave. He didn’t want to be responsible for what might happen if the wrong people found out, and I agreed wholeheartedly.

I would have liked to talk to him more, but at that point Mak knocked on the cellar door. I had to force myself not to tell them to fuck off as she came down with Kalder, who took his prisoner and left after promising to forward my wishes to his mistress. I didn’t want to let him go; I just couldn’t justify souring my relationship with Sempralia over him.

I didn’t share his story with Val, or with Tam once he returned from wherever he’d been. But Mak understood and shared my interest. So did Herald, when she returned. Her eyes were swollen and her makeup a mess after a long evening of saying goodbye to Maglan, but despite her anxiety she was pulled along at least a little in my excitement when I told her about the old enchanter and his rediscovered patterns, or formulae or whatever the preferred nomenclature was.

“You think there might be some connection to what happened to you?” she asked, already knowing my answer.

“Unless there’s more than one way of putting a soul in a different body, yeah. I mean, my case was different in a lot of ways, but still! Do you think we could find the enchanter?”

“Perhaps. If he still lives, and if we can get this guy to help us. If he can be trusted, that is. Then perhaps we could find either the enchanter, or his notes. But, Draka… then what?”

“Well, then…”

I trailed off, my elation slowly draining. Then what? I had no idea.

“Do you want to be human again?” Mak asked gently.

“No,” I answered, completely sure about my answer. Half of me had never been human. The other half was getting used to being a dragon. It was a pretty damned fine thing, and all the problems I faced were because of humans being assholes. No, I definitely didn’t want to be human again if I had a choice.

“What about… What if you could be separated again?” Herald asked, and the trepidation with which she asked made it clear that she feared that I might say yes.

“No,” I said again, more softly, a little less certain this time. “I’m happy with who I am. Mostly. I’ve got some issues that I need to work out, but the three of us in here—”

“Three!?” Mak exclaimed before lowering her voice. “What do you mean three? The human and the dragon — who’s the third?”

“Draka is a bit of a mix, I think,” Herald answered for me. “But the human and the dragon are both still in there. Please do not ask her to explain it. She is more confused than I am.”

“Honestly, she’s right. I don’t know what’s going on in my head. Maybe I was always like this and the human part was silent, or maybe I really was the human side which became more like the dragon and now a new human bit has budded off or… Don’t think about it too hard, yeah? The important thing is that I don’t want to mess with it.”

“So what are you after?” Herald asked. “Is it just curiosity?”

“I guess I want to know what happened to me. When Avjilan told me his story I got all excited, but now that you ask me I guess it wouldn’t actually change anything. Maybe there’s a way I could become human, or become two people again. Maybe I could go back to Earth, where my human side is from. But I don’t want to. The more I think about it, the more certain I become. I just want to know.”

“All right. There is nothing wrong with that,” Herald said. “But let us make that a low priority, shall we? Getting you recognized as a person has to come first.”

“I know that, yeah? I know. But this is the first real hint I’ve seen of a connection to what happened to me. It’s…” I sighed. “What if they decide to get rid of Avjilan before I can learn anything else? It wouldn’t change anything, but I’d always wonder.”

“I don’t think they will,” Mak said soothingly. “I didn’t get that feeling from Kalder at all. If anything I think they’ll want to hold on to him, or control him, as leverage against you in case they need it. Which they won’t, so that’s all fine, right?”

“Right.” If my tone didn’t convey how unconvinced I was, Mak would have felt it directly anyway. “Just see what you can do, all right, Mak? I’m not asking for any miracles, or for you to make any concessions for his sake. Just see what you can do.”

“I will.” She scratched the base of my neck lightly, and the pleasant feeling soothed me a little despite myself. “Do you want some company tonight? It’s been an emotional day for all of us, and you’re going in the morning.”

“Yeah, I’d like that.” I wasn’t going to pass up a chance to get some extra physical contact in before I left. I looked at Herald, who smiled and nodded at my unspoken question. “All right, then. Let’s get some sleep.”

My internal clock woke me well before sunrise. I tried to move as little as possible, simply enjoying the feeling and the gentle sounds of Herald and Mak sleeping snuggled together under my wing. Soon enough, though, I had to wake them. Not that I had much in the way of preparations to take care of, but I needed to both get out of the city and to the meeting place unseen. For all that we’d talked about trust, I wanted to get a good look at these companions that were being foisted onto me before I actually approached them, and that meant that I needed time to take things slowly.

We said our goodbyes. I was probably more worried than them. Even with Sempralia providing some guards around the inn, it was still too early to be confident that the Tesprils wouldn’t try anything desperately stupid, especially if they found out that I was away. My sisters’ greatest concern was that I’d see something I couldn’t abide and get myself into trouble, and they made me promise to be careful. And yeah, fair enough. That was how we’d ended up with Kira, after all.

I made my way to the garden quickly, taking off and heading south. I was somewhat familiar with the area where the meeting place was, having seen it from above, but I’d never taken a close look at it.

The actual meeting was to take place in a small wood that sat among the fields. Whether it was decorative or there for some productive purpose was a mystery to me, but it fit our needs for a sheltered place to meet nicely. Sempralia’s message had described a path that entered the woods from the west, leading to a small clearing at its center, and I found that center from the air. Instead of landing there I got close to the treetops, Shifted, and drifted the last dozen feet until I got hold of a tree that I could use to descend.

I found the clearing easily, but I had arrived very early and there was no one there. The sun rose as I waited among the trees. It took another hour before three riders came down the path. They were all hooded, but two of them looked familiar by their builds, posture and equipment, and as I looked closer I realized that I knew their horses!

What the hell is going on, I asked myself as I watched Garal and Lalia dismount, leaving Melon and Windfall free to graze. The third rider, a rather tall, broad-shouldered man, got off his horse rather less gracefully, then threw off his hood to reveal someone I’d met only the day before.

Gods damn you, Sempralia, I cursed. What’s Maglan doing here?

I didn’t believe for a second that this was some bizarre coincidence, that these three just happened to be here only an hour before I was supposed to meet some supposedly trustworthy traveling companions, or that they’d been chosen by some chance unrelated to me. No wonder Sempralia thought that I could trust these people! She probably knew everything about my relationships with Garal and Lalia at this point, however she’d gone about it. Maglan was perhaps a gamble, but a clever one. I’d never met him before the previous day, but she must have done her homework on Herald, and she likely assumed that I wouldn’t do anything to harm Herald’s — and I hated that this was the only appropriate word — lover.

I just didn’t know why. Why did she want me to travel with, or escort, these three at all?

I was about to approach them when Lalia’s voice rang out across the clearing. “Hey, Mag?”

“Yes, miss Lalia?”

“I don’t suppose your commander told you who we’re supposed to be meeting, and you just weren’t allowed to tell us until we got here?”

“Afraid not, miss Lalia.”

“Well, shit. Rallon didn’t tell us anything, which probably means that he doesn’t know either. Bullshit, if you ask me. Why are they sending a single archer south, anyway?”

“Sorry, miss Lalia. Wish I could tell you. All I know is the others are marching as normal later today, but I’m being sent ahead with a message.” He held up a leather tube that hung by a strap around his neck. “Though why they sent it with me instead of a messenger, and why you two are here, the gods only know.”

That, I decided, was my cue. “Probably because you’re all connected to me,” I declared. I walked out of the trees, all three of them whirling to face me as I entered the clearing.

“Lady Draka!” Maglan was the first to speak, stammering as he saw me approaching.

Garal just grinned and waved. I’d expected Lalia to say something snarky or rude, but perhaps she was too stunned by the turn of events. “Oh,” she said, then, “Morning, Draka. This just raises more questions.”

“Morning, all. Didn't expect to be seeing you again so soon, Maglan. And yeah, Sempralia’s going to have some explaining to do once we get back.”

“Sempralia?” Garal asked. “The Lady Justice Sempralia? She’s behind this?”

“That’s the one. We’re supposed to be ‘building trust.’”

“Damn weird way to go about that,” Lalia muttered.

I nodded. “Right? None of us could quite figure out what her plan was when she demanded I travel with a group. And I don't know what kind of statement this is supposed to be.” I gestured to the three of them. “Better than a bunch of strangers, though.”

“What, even me?”

Lalia's mocking tone drew a snort from me, and a shocked stare from Maglan. “Yeah, even you. I haven't wanted to hurt you for ages, now. We’re practically friends!”

She gave a single, barking laugh. “Sure, yeah. So—” she looked between myself and Garal, only sparing Maglan a glance. “How do we do this? We can’t exactly ride down the southern road with a dragon in tow, no matter how merciful and magnificent she may be.”

Everything she said was correct, no matter how insincere her flattery was. “I’ve been thinking about it since Mak told me,” I said. “The best I’ve come up with is that I keep an eye on you from the sky, and when you make camp you do it somewhere I can hide in earshot. It won’t exactly be the most companionable way of traveling, and now that I know it’s you I’ll be escorting, I wish that there was a better way, but it is what it is.”

They thought for a moment, but all three agreed that my plan made sense. “We’ll just have to look extra hard for places to camp,” Garal said, forcing some cheer into his voice. “That way we can talk a little, at least.”

“So, ah…” Maglan broke the short silence that followed. “You all know each other from before?”

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “Garal and Lalia and me, we go way back. Since before I met Herald, even! I saved Garal’s life and then Lalia tried to chop my head off for my trouble.” I grinned as Lalia just rolled her eyes. “But we get along better now.”

“Since you didn’t run for your life, I guess you’ve met Draka, too,” Garal said.

“Ah, yes. I have. Only yesterday.”

“Herald promised to introduce us before he went back to the border,” I said.

Lalia snorted. “Poor girl’s been so nervous. ‘What if my boyfriend doesn’t like my dragon friend? What if she tries to eat him?’ I told her that’s just the risk you take when you introduce your friends to each other, but she didn’t seem to like that.”

“She did not suggest that I might eat Maglan!” I protested.

“Not in so many words. But you know what I mean.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t have eaten him…”

“Ah, excuse me?” Maglan looked a little pale as he butted in. “You’re joking, right?”

Lalia didn’t miss a beat. “No, she’s serious. She’s promised not to eat anyone.”

“I promised not to eat you,” I corrected. “Right, Garal?”

Garal sighed and went to bring back the horses, which had wandered a bit.

The early morning light revealed a thin sheen of sweat on Maglan’s brow. “So, to be clear, yesterday—”

“Ah, don’t worry, Mag,” Lalia said, dropping her teasing and becoming more serious. “Herald would have never introduced you two if she wasn’t completely sure. Besides, I’m pretty sure that Draka is entirely unable to do anything that might hurt that girl, and that includes harming you.”

“I did promise Herald that I wouldn’t hurt you, no matter what,” I confirmed. “The worst I would have done if I didn’t feel like I could trust you would have been to make sure that you’d never talk about me to anyone.”

Maglan didn’t look reassured. “Ah… how?”

“Oh, I have ways. Believe me, you’d rather not know if you can help it. But don’t worry about that. For now, just think of me as a second older sister—”

“Third,” Lalia butted in. “I’m an honorary big sister already.”

“A third older sister, then. Just with sharper teeth and a warmer personality than the first two.”

“Oh, come off it! Mak’s a perfectly lovely woman!” Lalia said, then stuck her tongue out at me and went to join Garal. When we were alone I approached Maglan, who stood his ground admirably. In a low voice I said, “For real, though. Herald loves you, yeah? I don’t know if you’ve had that talk, but she does. So you have nothing to fear from me, as long as you don’t do anything to hurt her.”

I walked away without waiting for a reply, leaving him to think about what exactly I meant by that.

Five minutes later we were on our way; me five thousand feet up, and them riding along a narrow lane that would take them to the main southern road. I had to fly in long, sweeping circles to not pull too far ahead. It was a good thing that the weather was fine and the view great, because it was going to be a long trip to the border.