Spear of Destiny by James Baldwin (room on the broom read aloud txt) 📗

“I... thank you.” I sat down on Karalti’s neck, stroking it as she burrowed under Lahati’s wing. The Hall of Heroes that she was talking about had hundreds of biers like the ones outside. The coins alone were probably worth hundreds of thousands of gold Olbia... and the artifacts, magical knowledge, weapons, and armor were potentially priceless. “Thank you so much, for all of this.”

“I did not sacrifice everything only to see the Deceivers sweep Archemi and destroy the world my lover died to preserve,” Lahati said fiercely. “To see my great-granddaughter, Usta, enslaved to the human warmonger who serves them. I sense in you both an incredible spirit, a powerful will to fight. It is my honor to give these gifts to you. I believe in your vision, Herald. I believe your Triad will drive the Drachan back to the Void that spawned them. As long as you can hold onto your sanity, I believe you will triumph.”

The sharp scent of mana cut the air: mana laced with a dense, rose-like perfume. I felt Karalti swallow, her long neck rippling under my hands. Then she stood up, panting, her muzzle coated in a glaze of dark blue dragon’s blood. Her scales heated, lifting under my hands, and the veins of shimmering color between them intensified.

[Karalti the Black Opal Queen has gained a new Path: Path of Royalty.]

[New information has been added to your mount’s character data.]

[Quest Completed: The Path of Royalty.]

[You gain 1576 EXP! Karalti gains 4 Bonus Lexica!]

[Karalti is Level 16!]

The heat and opalescent light spread over Karalti’s body, briefly filling the cavern with light. When it passed, she was a couple of feet longer, about two-thirds the size of Lahati. The muscles of her back were thicker, her tail longer, the fins along the flattened edges of it longer and more aerodynamic. The saddle, thanks to the virtual reality wizardry that made equippable clothes and armor fit any player who wore them, resized to fit. Karalti stretched her wings and craned her neck, looking back at her body in wonder.

“You are a glorious woman, Karalti,” Lahati sighed. “The Nine have mercy on any male who seeks to catch you in the sky. I fear the lair-coddled dragons of Ilia may not be up to the task.”

“Then they’ll have to train until they’re good enough, won’t they?” Karalti snorted and tossed her head, but the thought of her being pursued by other dragons made her—and me—vaguely uncomfortable. As she’d matured, the subject of her taking a mate or three had become an unspoken tension between us. Karalti had gone into heat once already, while in human form, and it had ended... awkwardly. The next time she was compelled to mate, it was possible that there would be other dragons around. Male dragons. And I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

“Can you give us any advice about the Dragon Gates?” I asked. “You helped create them. What should we know about them?”

“By opening the Gates, you awaken the god entombed within,” Lahati replied. Her voice was becoming wispier, more distant. “Each opened Gate will destabilize the Caul, but as the sleeping god gathers their strength, they will help control the collapse. The magical architecture was designed to withstand the collapse of up to three of the Dragon Gates, other than Veles’.”

“What’s special about his Gate?”

“He was the first to be entombed, and he must be the last to awaken. The Lord of Time’s power is the keystone of the Caul, and if his Gate were to open first, the result would be catastrophic. It is why we sacrificed Hava Sahasi to raise The Gate of Endless Longing above the dome of the sky, beyond the reach of man or dragon.”

“What if...” Karalti trailed off, anxiously tossing her head. “What if one of the gods died? As in... really died?”

“My soul shudders to think,” Lahati said. “But only the most powerful of the Architects could be capable of such a thing. I do not know the means... a god’s death is not the same as a mortal’s. Darkness would not cease to exist if Matir were to truly perish. The Darkness would generate a new godling, who would rise as they assumed their mantle. Perhaps a mortal would ascend, or perhaps they would form from the night sky. It is unknown.”

“But once the first Dragon Gate has been opened, the Drachan can get out, right?” I said. “So we have to time it right.”

“The Drachan will stir to wakefulness, but they will not be freed. But they are weakened from eons of forced confinement, and the magic of the Caul of Souls is powerful,” Lahati said. “I cannot predict what will occur. I can tell you that it is not only the Drachan themselves who are sealed in Rhorhon. They were bound with their alien servants. The legions of the Void: demons, humans, and the Rostori.”

I drew a deep, steadying breath. “Alright. Thanks for that... and thank you for everything you’ve done for us, Your Majesty. I can say with absolute, one-hundred percent certainty that you are the coolest dead lady I know.”

“Hector!” Karalti hissed, flattening all seven horns against her skull.

Soft, ghostly laughter echoed around us. “If only the ancient Paragons had been able to preserve such a sense of humor. Siva Nandini, Altair of the Broken Chains, Pathfinder, Grigori Skyrr, Catherine of Annecy... all so serious, they were. Treasure this one, my daughter. He is perhaps the second man in history who has made me laugh.”

“Wait!” Karalti took an urgent step forward as the cavern exhaled and the softly glowing lights flickered. “Lahati, grandmother... there’s so much I don’t know! About my mother, about our people-”

“You will, child.” A wraithlike form began to rise from the silent corpse of the ancient queen, the shadow of a great dragon. Lahati’s head was