Chapter 35

CHAPTER35

He skirted around a cloud, tilting his wings so he could maneuver through it without being seen. This felt... strange. He remembered the path that Tanis had detailed to him. He remembered this journey as though he’d done it before, but he couldn’t have gone this way before. Abraxas stayed away from this side of the kingdom.

Solis Occasum had already fallen, but there were cave systems beyond it. Tanis had felt them as she made her journey here, and she had been certain that was where the crimson dragons had spoken with her.

It was the final resting place for many of his kind; she had said. She’d warned of what he might find within those caverns. If there were any other hidden crystals, she would have sent him there. But this? This was the journey he had to make.

And so he landed outside of the cave system and tucked his wings tight against his body. These caves were made by dragons. He should journey into them with the bravery and body of a protector who had seen his family through much hardship. He should hold his head high and proud.

But, as he stared into that darkness, he found himself wavering. Hesitating. Fearful that in this moment, he was about to find something equally terrifying and heartbreaking.

His first step into the caves was into darkness. His eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim light, and then to the blackness that surrounded him.

Then his foot crunched on something that felt like bone.

Abraxas tilted his head to the side, eyes closed in horror that threatened to eat him up inside. He’d known this was where a massacre had taken place, but he hadn’t... He’d never expected the mortals to leave them here. He’d thought this place would be raided by those who knew dragon bones and scales would come at a heavy price.

Surely the magician himself had come here. Lindon would have sensed the strange pools of magic that had come from crimson dragons spilling their lifeblood on the ground. Surely one such as that would have thought that desecrating such a burial ground was worth it if the magic he gained was much more powerful than ever before? Or had even Lindon realized that was too far?

And he still hadn’t opened his eyes.

Abraxas took a deep, calming breath and blinked his eyes open to see the horrors that surrounded him. Dragon skeletons littered the floor. Too many for him to count, considering they were scattered about in pieces where animals had come to feast. Many of their giant heads had glittering scales decorating the stone around them. Glittering scales that looked like droplets of fresh blood.

His heart lurched and his stomach rebelled. These were the last of his people. The last of the crimson dragons who should have protected their own kind, and instead, they had died in a cave. Terrified and trapped because the humans had forced them into this position.

He wanted to tilt his head back and roar with the injustice of it. He wanted to tear apart any human who stepped in his path for the next hundred years.

But his heart whispered this was not the way. He could not destroy an entire kingdom because of the pain in his chest. He had to find a new way forward so this would never happen again. And if he fell into the same trap that his people had fallen into before, then his end would surely look the same as this.

Slithering through the remains of the fallen, he picked through their bodies as the skulls stared back at him. They watched his movements with judgment, with hope, with the terrifying realization that they were still here. They were alive and well because they were inside of him.

And he felt so young.

Abraxas had lived for hundreds of years. He’d seen kingdoms rise and fall, and yet, in the weight of their dark eye sockets, he realized he was still so young. Still a child who needed the help of his ancestors and wanted nothing more than to hear the sound of his mother’s voice one last time.

And how small was he? He had thought he was a massive dragon, huge in comparison to all others, but he stood beside a skull of a dragon who had died with his head in a hole on the ground—perhaps what had once been a pool of water—and he was scarcely more than half of its size.

Would he continue to grow? There was no one to ask the questions he wanted answered. Would he only get larger as the years passed? Was it truly all right for him to mate with an elf, and not have to worry about the other generations because he’d already hatched two other eggs? He was replaced by two creatures who would make at least two more. Surely he’d done enough and now he could just rest with his beloved?

Abraxas continued moving through the massive cave system until he found them. The crystals. Glowing red and gleaming in the back of the caves, their light casting the entire space in an ominous and terrifying glow. This was where his people had died, protecting their memories with their bodies and their lives.

Shaking his head, he made his way closer to the tallest crystal, as Tanis had told him to do. She said all he needed was to touch it, just like his children, and the memories would come. It was less about maintaining them, protecting them, ensuring that the memories were exactly as they were meant to be. Instead, this was about consuming them so no one else would see them ever again.

And so he rested his giant weight next to the crystals, feeling the rocks biting against his scales and scratching his sides. Then he reached out and touched the tip of his nose to the crystal and let his eyes flutter shut.

At first, he felt nothing. Just the sensation of magic flowing over his body. Until it wriggled underneath a loose scale and his mind fractured.

He was himself and not. He was a dragon and two dragons and more, suddenly filled with a rush of souls that shouted for his attention.

They flooded through him, a sudden spiking headache splintering through his head as so many memories threatened to overwhelm him. They all wanted to show him what they thought he needed to know. What he needed to see. How he needed to act, to be, to move forward in his life as a dragon. And it was too much. It was all so much.

Until it cleared, and all the memories and souls moved aside for a vision of a much larger soul. The soul of the dragon who had died in the water. Abraxas suddenly knew he’d done so to leave a message. A message for Tanis, it seemed, as he filtered through the massive dragon’s memories.

Attor.

The dragon’s name was Attor, and he had been the greatest crimson dragon that this world had ever seen. He’d led the battle here, drawn all the dragons he could toward Umbra where the boats had come from. Where they had started a battle that would end the very lives of all the dragons in their homeland. He’d tried to fight for them, to bring an end to the madness, and he had failed.

But where he had failed, Abraxas would not.

Attor’s soul remained in this place, waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect dragon, to finish his work. Not to destroy or maim or ruin an entire kingdom. But to build back the hope and connection that dragons had once brought.

If another battle was the only way to bring about that new age, then Attor would share with him all that he knew.

Abraxas lived through the memories of training that Attor had given. To sapphire dragons who had only known how to fight in the water, but they could bring the water with them. To the emerald dragons who had only been wise and kind, and how he’d used their quick wit and intelligence to make them fierce warriors. Gold, red, shimmering purple. They’d all fought alongside this massive dragon who had led them toward what he had been certain would be a victory.

He watched them arrive with hope and determination in his chest. He’d known that all the colors of dragons arriving in one place was risky. That he could leave his homeland completely unprotected, but no human had ever made the journey to the dragon isles.

All those dragons had come together, and they had fought. At first, it was with success. They had rejoiced and the happiness that had flowed through his veins made everything all right. He could feel the pride that Attor had felt. He knew the sensation of relief and the hope that maybe this was over. Maybe it could be over and that he’d done the right thing.

And then Abraxas watched them all die. He watched as they bled and they screamed and they cried out for the crimson dragons to save them. He knew the struggle as the dragons fought their way through hordes of humans and elves and other creatures who had tried to imprison them.

And he knew the moment that Attor did. The dragons would fail. They were the monsters in everyone else’s story. None of the creatures wanted them to be here, because then there was nothing that could stop them. Until they realized even swarms of ants could destroy a rat, and that was the end of it.

They had realized, if they wished, they could all kill dragons. They could destroy them and hunt them and turn them into little pieces of what they once were to use in magical spells and to make themselves feel more powerful.

Just like the dragons were.

Abraxas nearly wrenched himself out of the memories. He wanted no part in this, because his heart was near breaking and all he could think about was how cruel and unjust this had been.

The dragons had suffered protecting themselves. They had suffered because everyone had wanted them to suffer.

All the memories flattened then. They smoothed out of heartbreak and blood into nothing more than a dragon staring down at himself in a pool of water. And Abraxas saw so much of himself in that massive head. The scars, the haunted eyes, the way the weight of the world seemed to weigh upon his shoulders.

Attor spoke, and his voice was like thunder. “This memory is for you, and you alone. I do not know who you will be, or what madness has brought you here.” A burst of fire flared behind him, and shouts erupted in the middle of the message. “But I need you to listen to me. War only brings more war and hatred. Our people failed to realize this, and once we did, it was far too late. Bring about a new age. An age of dragons who listen and learn and make time for the others that live in this realm. A place where dragons can... be. Without having to fight. Without having to hold to the old ways.”

Abraxas winced as another blast of flames erupted behind the dragon’s head and he knew, he knew, this was the moment Attor had died. The moment that the crystals had barely stored and perhaps it was his blood that had drawn the memories to their sharp edges.

“We hid them,” Attor added, his eyes slanting behind him before he stared down into the water one last time. “We hid the eggs. In the mountains. The Stygian Peaks the mortals call them. They are all throughout the lands, tens of them. Enough to restart everything should this... should this...”

The memory ended there. It snapped to a finality that made him flinch back so hard that Abraxas jerked himself away from the crystals.

There was more, he knew. More he could see and learn because the crystals were still glowing bright, bloody red.

If he wanted, he could dive back into those memories after he got his bearings, but... Damn, he wasn’t sure that’s what he wanted. Abraxas wasn’t sure he could handle more.

And the longer he was away from the thrall of the memories, the less he thought he wanted to see. He knew his people had suffered. He’d seen that suffering firsthand now, and perhaps... Perhaps part of learning these new ways and acknowledging that the old ways were dead, was taking care of himself first.

He knew where the crystals were. Attor had given him all the knowledge he could need, while understanding that there needed to be space for Abraxas to digest what had been given to him.

He knew, without a doubt, this was the right way. Someday he would return. Someday, he would come back and learn more from his ancestors and take their memories into himself.

But right now, he needed to heal.

He needed to give his mind time and understanding to grow and learn and...

Gods, there were more eggs.

There were more dragonlings to find, and he knew that was important. More important than this war, but he couldn’t split himself into two people.

He already had a family to protect. He had a dragon and an elf and dragonlings who still needed to be looked after, and he was a fool if he risked their mother’s life. Tanis needed to know this. She needed to know that there were more eggs for them to find and gather and that they needed to...

He was moving out of the cave before he even realized it. Until he stood beside Attor’s skull and stared into the dark spots where the dragon’s eyes should be. And then he bowed, low and long, even though the dragon was no longer here with him.

“I will return.” His voice boomed through the cavern. “I will come back to honor your memories and your bodies. I will not leave them here, but first, I must save this kingdom as you all wished to do. I must piece it back together with honor and life. And then I will ensure that your bodies are remembered and your final memories are safe.”

Then he fled that cave of darkness. He flew through the skies without care if anyone saw him, because this was the moment he needed. This was the time when the entirety of Umbra needed to see a crimson dragon once again.

Landing hard on their island, he didn’t stop until he stood but a few breaths from Tanis. “There are more,” he said, breathing hard and his eyes wild. “There are more eggs.”

Only silence was his response as Tanis paled even through her scales. She swallowed hard and then said, “What did he tell you?”

Tears pooled in her eyes and he thought perhaps she might faint. He twined their necks, holding hers up with his as she tried to catch her breath. “More... of us? There are more of us?”

“In the mountains.”

“I cannot... I can’t...”

“You will go with Rowan,” he ordered, already knowing that she’d agree. “You will search the mountains for these eggs and you will bring them home with you, Tanis. You will.”

And though her eyes were as haunted as his, she nodded. “I will find them, Abraxas. I will bring them home.”

He glanced at his children, who stood with their spines straight and their heads raised high. “And we will fight to keep you all safe.”