Chapter 42

by Amanda Cast

And Something Else

Arenas always have the same concept in mind when they are built. The arena of Varanar was no different from that of Vestron except for that instead of being built upward it was dug down. Black and green stone were prominent, though the floor was covered in sand. There were no columns and arches. It was just a flat surface all but perfectly vertical. There were three entrances made of metal bars and magic.

Pandora inspected it and began planning how she was going to fight and attempted to imagine all that she could fight. The sand would slip under their feet and could possibly cause her to lose her balance. She pondered on what could make the occurrence rare if not unlikely, and to make it far more likely for her opponent.

“Mother,” Emerald said cautiously and Pandora turned to look at the green dragon. “I have something to tell you.”

Pandora kneeled down so that Emerald could easily whisper into her ear. Emerald’s breath was hot and smelled of iron rich blood. “What is it, dearest?”

“You and mother are different from that other Speaker,” she said. “We do not know if she is normal or not.”

“What do you mean?” Pandora asked quietly and motioned for Serene to come over to them. The half elf rested on her knees and the other hatchlings stuck their heads close to their mothers’ faces.

“She does not have magic the way you have magic,” Emerald said.

“I felt it, too,” Star said quietly and looked over her shoulder. “I think it might be important.”

“We all do,” Rubio said.

“What are you talking about?” Serene asked and held Rubio’s head in her cupped hands. He closed his eyes and sighed.

Topaz’s hide was wrinkled around his eyes and they swirled all the colors in the world that were set in stone. He rubbed his head against Pandora’s neck and cheek. “Mother, you will kill for us, won’t you?” he asked.

“I will do anything for you, my love,” she said. “You are all precious to me.”

“Mother, Momma,” Emerald said, “I think we can help you win.”

“Why is that?” Serene asked. Star was wrapping herself around her Momma.

“It’s more of a how,” Rubio said and fidgeted.

“We did not tell you, because you wanted to protect us from the mages,” Emerald said.

“They’re so ignorant about dragons,” Star interjected.

Emerald shot her sister a stern look. “We need to tell them,” she said and then turned back to her mothers. “You can use our magic.”

The center of Pandora’s forehead wrinkled. “I can’t…”

“Yes, you can, Mother,” Topaz said seriously. “It’s not a spell. We don’t cast a spell when we use our magic. We just use it.”

“It’s as natural as breathing and sleeping and eating,” Star started.

Topaz said without missing a beat, “And shitting.”

“Don’t be crude,” Star said. “It’s rude.”

Topaz snorted. “Just trying to lighten the mood,” he said against Pandora’s stomach.

“You’re just as worried as the rest of us,” Star said testily.

“It’s not like we think you’ll fail,” Rubio said hastily, “But if they make you fight kids, I don’t know if either of you could go through with it.”

Serene and Pandora exchanged uncertain glances.

“In fact,” Emerald said quietly, “We don’t know if you can kill at all.”

“Or if you will,” Topaz admitted and his entire body drooped closer to the floor.

“How are we unlike the other Speaker then?” Serene asked.

“Oh,” Emerald said and then coughed, “She can touch the magic and she can use it. She is an elf and a magical creature by nature, but she can only touch the magic of the dragons she is close to.”

“So we can touch the magic of other dragons?” Pandora asked.

Emerald’s face wrinkled in thought, “I think you can use ours.”

“But what is your magic?” Serene asked. All of the dragons and girls were now leaning so far into each other that their heads were touching.

“Fire and Death,” Rubio said.

“Ice and Soul and more,” Star said.

“Dreams and Memories,” Emerald said.

“She also spits acid,” Rubio interrupted and Emerald pulled back just to glare at him.

“I am Stone and… Renewal?”

“What do you mean?’

“Some of our abilities are new to the world, I think,” Star said. “The magic has no name and we don’t know the extent to which it goes. Rubio is fire and he exudes warmth when he uses magic. I absorb it.”

“She consumes it and is going to get fat,” Rubio said.

“I thought we were having a serious moment,” Emerald said.

“We are, but—“

“All right,” Serene said, cutting them all off. “What else can you tell us?”

“Em and I are war dragons,” Topaz said. “And I think I want another name.”

“Now is not the time to get a new name,” Star told him.

“Since when did you start calling Emerald ‘Em’?” Serene asked, digressing right along with the others.

Pandora sighed. “Just tell us what we can do, if you please. They won’t give us much longer to talk.”

“Oh, sorry, Mother,” Star said.

“You can take on stone skin, for one,” Topaz said. “It will protect you from blades, but I don’t know what it would do against a mace.”

Pandora nodded. She could just see skin shattering off of her body. The thought was unpleasant.

“You can resist the effects of Dream magic,” Emerald offered.

“That’s good to know,” Serene said earnestly.

“Some other things could hurt you greatly,” Star said. “Rubio and I don’t know the extent of what we can do, and we don’t know what you can do. I think we should just try and go an easy fire and ice route.”

“We’ll do what we can,” Pandora said.

“Are you going to use a weapon?” Star asked.

“I am a weapon,” Pandora said. She closed her eyes and focused on a single thought. She was stone so hot that it was malleable. It shifted and changed at every movement, but the form always stayed the same. Her fingers changed from round, useless nubs with fragile nails to claws that could rival a dragon’s in strength and durability. She looked down at her hands and saw claws at the tips of her fingers. They were hard and sharp. Relief rushed over her. It had worked.

“How did you do that?” Topaz asked.

“I am the stone,” she said. “I hear it sing.”

Emerald licked her mother’s cheek and then breathed her blood scented breath against her face and into her nose and mouth. “You should use my acid to get into their very blood,” she said. “Think of me when you cut. Think of it.”

“You do not need spells to wield the fire and the ice, Momma,” Rubio said. “You just have to think about it and it will come.”

“The same with you, Mother,” Star said and rubbed her cheek against Pandora’s face. They laid their foreheads together. “I love you, Mother.”

“I love you, too,” Pandora said. “They will not take you from us. Behave for Greg. If… if we fail… you all do what you think is best, but look out for Greg.”

“We will not stay here if you die,” Emerald said. “We will flee to another place. We will take Greg back to the surface. Maybe he could live with the tribes or the surface dragons will take us in.”

“We won’t fail and we won’t die,” Serene said. “But mind Greg and your manners.” She cut her eyes at Topaz. “You mind your mouth, too, young dragon.”

“Yes, Momma,” he said sheepishly.

Pandora and Serene kissed the hatchlings on the tops of their heads and pressed foreheads with them. Each time their eyes closed and Serene’s eyes were watery when they finished exchanging their “I love you”s. The cousin’s stood up and took each other’s hands and walked away from them towards the awaiting dragons.

“Are you scared?” Serene asked.

“Yes,” Pandora admitted. Her heart weighed heavily in her chest.

“Are we going to die?” she asked as Pandora’s hands faded into their natural shape.

“Not if I can help it,” Pandora said and stopped and pulled her cousin close. She took her other hand and looked down at her cousin. Serene was too short for Pandora to press their foreheads together as they had with the dragons. “I won’t let anyone hurt you, Serene. I won’t let anyone hurt those hatchlings. I’ll find a way to consume everyone in here with Rubio’s fire if I must. I won’t let you die.”

“I won’t let you die, either,” Serene promised. She started to pull away but stopped. “Pandora, I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For what I said to you at the Academy,” she said. “I’m sorry that I took their side instead of yours. You mean more to me than they ever could and I know you love me more, and I’m sorry.”

“I know,” Pandora said and hugged her cousin. “We can do anything together, Serene. We’re family and we’re Speakers. They will not defeat us. They can’t. Fate will not allow it.”

“Are you sure?”

“No,” Pandora said. “But I can believe it. It gives me strength and courage. No one will take our family from us. No one.”

Serene nodded and then they broke apart and continued to the dragons who had allowed them to have their discussion in peace. For safe measure they had spoken in their native tongues.

“Are you done saying your goodbyes?” Hannin asked.

“Why is it,” Serene said idly, “That everyone is out to kill us in one manner or another?”

“Well,” Pandora said, “I think it could be because we’re irreverent.”

“That could be it,” one of the dragons said with a nod. The jewelry that dangled from his ears shivered as he moved.

“Or it could be because they know we’re more powerful than they are,” Serene said, “And they’re worried we’ll try and take over the world with four hatchlings.”

“I think we could, but I’m not up for the work,” Pandora said to her cousin.

Serene glanced at Hannin to see his reaction. Pandora looked back for one last look at the Hatchlings who were now crowded protectively around Greg. Greg looked worried, and he pet Star absently as he watched Pandora and Serene entered the entrance to the preparation chambers.

<First><Chapter 41><Chapter 43><Latest>

Chapter 41

by Amanda Cast

Skirting the Line

Everything was carved with dragons and elves killing creatures of the underdark, or at least it was assumed that it was the underdark. Pandora wished she could stop and inspect them. The artwork made her feel something of which she had no familiarity.

Serene pulled her along and Greg pushed her forward. The hatchlings stayed close to her.

“They like killing things,” Topaz said in a hushed whisper that bounced against the stone and magnified.

The guardian dragons glared at him for silence, but he gave them his normal defiant expression. Pandora wondered if he could hear the stone’s story and see its maddening patterns. She touched his back. Emerald was at her other side.

Rubio flanked Serene and Star flanked Greg. Both of the humanoids touched their escort’s back. Serene stroked Rubio’s back. Her fingers traced around the ridges that were forming along his back.

“We are here,” Hannin said and the door opened on its own.

Pandora’s first thought was of the arena temple in the Temple District. Everything was red and black. There were statues of the black Shadow dragons that were the size of the hatchlings set in different poses with their wings spread or folded as the pose demanded. Scale patterned necks were arched and craned for battle and for vanity.

Red was pooled at their feet and pedestals.

The black skinned elves were crafted out of obsidian. Their head was made of a red stone that was the color of freshly welling blood. They held obsidian weapons with scarlet hilts and ruby pommels.

It was ostentatious. It made Pandora’s stomach hurt and her mind became jumbled in a chaos of red and black. Topaz pressed closer to her. Were the stones still talking to him?

She rubbed his hide, but the comfort she was trying to give felt lost.

On a black stone throne with rubies shining in the dim light sat a woman with hair died red. It looked like blood was raining from her head and cascading down her shoulders.

“Welcome, Speakers and boy of no tongue,” she greeted. She was lounging on the throne with her legs crossed at the knees. Her dress was white and slit high up to her hips so that all of her long, slender legs were showing. “Welcome dragons of Stone, Dreams, Fire, and Ice. My home is your home, my city is your city. May you be at peace and sleep satisfied and in comfort.”

“Greetings, Lady of Varanar,” Pandora and Serene said together and bowed. The hatchlings echoed the greeting and touched their noses to the black floor. No one had ever told them how dragons were supposed to bow.

Her eyes went passed the girls and the dragons and settled on Greg. “It is customary for the Lady of a City to be bowed to in her thrown room.”

“My people only bow before God,” Greg said with a deep, powerful voice that Pandora had never heard him use before. It echoed and vibrated throughout the room.

“You are with my people,” she told him.

One of the guards drew out his sickle blade, but the Lady of Varanar raised her hand to stop him. She said something to him in their Underdark language and he retired the weapon.

“My people bow only before God. For generations we have had no need for such movements. I ask that you respect that.”

Pandora’s brow knit together. “May I make a request from you, Lady of Varanar, from one Speaker to another?”

The elf looked at her with a raised, red eyebrow. Her lips were pursed together in irritation. “That depends on the request, Speaker.”

“It is Greg’s religion that prevents him from bowing to anyone other than his God. To ask him to do so is against the tenants of free faith that those of the cloth have long held dear to prevent more wars between the peoples of this world. I would ask that you allow him to keep his back straight and his culture strong. He is the only one of his kind in this world. He has a culture that should be explored and respected.”

“You are a child. You cannot imagine the importance that there is to bowing,” she said.

“In our world we bow in respect to those we view as our betters, Lady of Varanar. People such as myself have many betters and bow frequently. Bowing is empty to us. We do it out of habit, not out of respect or love,” Pandora said. She was uncomfortable and felt like an idiot, but she knew that Greg would not bend and did not want him harmed for his stubbornness.

“You do not respect me?” she asked.

“I do,” Pandora said, “You are a leader of a City of great wealth and power. You live and thrive in a world that is harsh and unforgiving, but I do not bow out of respect. I bow because it is customary to do so. It is not customary for Greg to do so. In the time that I have known him he has not yet bowed once.”

She narrowed her eyes at Pandora and then said to Greg, “What is your position in your world?”

“I am a king, a lord, a noble, a freeman, and the lowliest of peasants. I am all things because I am nothing and everyone else is the same,” he said.

She snorted. “A pretty speech,” she said. “For the Speaker I will allow you your straight back.”

“I am grateful,” he said and Pandora gave a soft smile.

The Lady of Varanar’s attention was grabbed by Hannin. He was speaking in the language that the elves used instead of draconic. Greg whispered a paraphrased translation to the girls.

“He is saying that Amazon here has heard the story that the stones tell.” The matriarch’s red eyebrows pulled together and she replied. “She says that it is disturbing news. No elf has heard the story since her grand mother. Only hearts that sing as a stone can hear it… I don’t know they aren’t making much sense.”

Serene agreed with a silent nod. Her right eye lid twitched.

“Hannin is upset because the dragons have been denied the tale. No one understands it who has not seen it. It is impossible to explain.”

“Is that why they’re so upset?” Serene asked.

“It has to do with a measure of a heart. None have had the heart who have approached the palace of stone. It has lain silent and still,” Greg said, but his face was wrinkled with concern.

“She doesn’t believe?” Serene asked.

“She does, but she is not so concerned. It is a sign of weakness and magic all at once.”

“Pandora is not weak,” Serene said dismissively.

“Will you let me talk?” Greg asked. “Anyway, I think they mean sympathy. Having sympathy and empathy for their enemy is a weakness of soul and spirit to them. They are a warlike people.”

“They can believe what they want,” Pandora said.

Greg’s eyes narrowed, but they were directed at the floor and through the hatchlings that were gathered at their feet. His expression was so intense that Serene began to lean closer as if to read his thoughts.

The dragon guards moved closer at the last thing she said and Greg said, “No,” in the same voice that he had used earlier. The guards hesitated. “They don’t want to be with anyone else.”

“What did they say?” Serene asked as the hatchlings began to hiss and spit angrily at the grown dragons.

“They want to take them away from you because you are not strong enough to raise children here,” he said.

“That is not their choice to make,” Star said. “It is ours.”

“You are not even six months old yet,” the Lady of Varanar said. “You do not get to choose what it is that happens.”

“They do not want to be apart from us,” Pandora said. “We are their mothers. We have accepted the task and will be their mothers until they decide that they will no longer have us.”

“That is not for other children to decide. You are not even in your monthly flow. You are weak in spirit and soul, Speaker. To raise a hatchling one needs to be strong and stern.”

“You don’t even know her,” Topaz said angrily.

“Look at them, they have no respect. No manners.”

“How many two month old dragons do you bring here and insult?” Serene asked and shook her hands hard at her wrists. She squared her shoulders and braced her legs apart.

The woman said nothing to this. “They will be put under the control someone older and wiser. Each will have their own ‘parent’.”

“No!” Rubio said and wrapped his body around Serene. “You will not separate us. You will not!”

“They are our mothers,” Star said. “They love us. We won’t leave them.”

“While you are with us—“

“Then we will leave,” Emerald said and everyone turned to stare at her except for Pandora and Serene.

“Why would you leave here?” she asked Emerald. “You belong in the Underdark. You belong with us. You are a dragon of Dreams and Mysteries.”

“I will not be separated from my brothers and sister. I will not be separated from my mothers. You are weak in spirit, not them. You have no idea what they have given up for us and what they have lost.”

“They are here with the dragons of Dreams and Memories to give them food and shelter. They are not forced to earn their keep in this harsh world. They have given up nothing.”

“That is a lie,” Serene said with her fingers stretched out taunt. “I have no idea where my father is. He could be dead and he is all the family I knew before I met Pandora. You know nothing about us or our spirit or our strength.”

“Perhaps I should test you,” she said. “You have heard the story. You are weak and your spirit is poor.”

“You know nothing of my cousin,” Serene yelled and Pandora put a hand on her shoulder.

“And what would your test be?” Pandora asked. She could feel the familiar anxiety pricking at her finger tips and gripping her heart and releasing it at every beat. She took a deep breath and felt the air fill her lungs with every nerve.

“Perhaps combat to the death,” she said.

Pandora frowned. “Why to the death?’ she asked.

“Is there no more strength than in taking a life?” she asked.

Pandora was not a killer, though she would kill to protect those that meant the most to her, she did not want to go out of her way to take a life. “The weak must kill their enemy to ensure their survival,” Pandora said, remembering something she had read once, “One of strength can spare their foe and fear not for their life.”

“Your foe uses resources you and yours could use,” she told Pandora.

“My concern in this is small,” Pandora said. “If you are unhappy with my family then we shall take our chances in the caverns and leave.”

“You would disrespect me and face a chance of execution?” she asked. “It will not be pleasant.”

“I would leave. If you would not let me then I suppose I will have to fight to the death if need be. I would rather not have it come to that. Life is a precious thing that should not be taken lightly.”

“Do you think we take our lives lightly?”

“I think you hunger for mortality,” she said simply. “You fight and kill because you can die and gain peace in no other way.”

“I have given you one boon, Speaker, and I will give you no other. If you wish to keep your children and your friend then you and your cousin must prove that you deserve the right to raise them.”

“Then we will,” Serene said. “I’ll take out an army of dragons for my children.”

“You are a child,” the Lady of Varanar said, “And you will die a child.”

<First><Chapter 40><Chapter 42><Latest>

Chapter 40

by Amanda Cast


Stone Lizards


It was a long walk to the Palace of Vanadar was long, uneventful, but educational. They had to traverse a layer over the markets, but all of the children had to look over the railing to see what was down there. Some if the smells that wafted up made their stomachs grumble even after their breakfast and some of them made their stomach’s turn and roil. They could see jewels, fabrics, precious metals, and slaves dressed up in revealing clothing.

There was also a great deal of light. Music danced in the air and the hatchlings crooned along with it. It was almost painful, but no one told them to be quiet even though everyone wanted them to hush.

“Mother, look!” Emerald said excitedly. “Do you see it?”

“See what?” Pandora said as she patiently looked over the railing. “The gold?”

Emerald’s triangular head nodded emphatically. “It makes me sleepy just looking at it.”

“Well, let’s keep moving, dearest. The gold is there to stay. We have nothing to get it with. You know that Momma and I are not in good sorts right now.”

Emerald looked disappointed but nodded. The other hatchlings looked at it longingly. Their tails dragged behind them as they thought about the gold and that their mothers could not get it for them.

“For dragons raised by humans that cannot control them they are very well behaved,” the captain of the escort said. His name was Hannin, or just Han, as the others called him.

“We behave because we love them,” Topaz said proudly with a flick of his tail.

“Most of our young would try and steal the entire pile without question, but they asked about it and obeyed when you told them no,” Han said to Pandora. He ignored Topaz.

“They obey us because they know no other way,” Serene said.

“That is not true,” Star said huffily. “Topaz is right. We obey you out of love and respect, not because we’re mindless.”

Serene gave Star a fond smile and patted her on the head. Greg rolled his eyes. Pandora shrugged and stroked Topaz’s head soothingly.

“They do keep secrets from you though,” said one of the other guards. Her name escaped Pandora, but she thought it was something that started with a V. Vivian? Vivvanna? She shrugged at her own lack of memory and gave a little snort.

“We told them when they hatched not to tell us what they were capable of,” Serene said. “We did so to protect them from the mages when they coerced us into that prison they call an Academy.”

“I probably should have kept my mouth shut too,” Greg said irritably.

“You are too hard on yourself, Greg White of Earth,” said one of the other dragons. “You were alone in a world that was not your own with people who are not your own. Understanding was lost to you both. Ignorance is bliss, but it is as dangerous as knowing too much.”

“Seems like you’re screwed either way,” Serene said quietly.

Viv smiled at Serene in that patiently patronizing way that adults smile at children. “It is a delicate balance that we all must mind.” She looked around and then looked back at Serene. “One must always be aware of the dangers of this world and know enough to avoid them. To seek too much knowledge of the dangers of this world will only lead to death. Those who are curious live long. Those that are too curious die young. Those that lack curiosity do not live at all.”

Pandora glanced at her cousin and could tell that the half-elf was doing her best not to roll her eyes. Pandora smiled faintly despite herself and then forced her face back into its stoic, flat expression.

Pandora, all in all, felt lost inside. She had no idea what to expect when she met the Lady of Vanadar. Serene slipped her hand into hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. Strength filled Pandora from her very center and she turned and gave Serene a soft smile.

There was more talking, but Pandora found that she was too immersed in her own thoughts to pay much attention. The purple light of the Underdark lamps cast deep and dark shadows on every inch of the cavern floor. She could barely make out the texture because one subtle rise would overwhelm the rest.

“Mother,” Rubio said, snapping her out of her reverie.

“Yes, Rubio,” Pandora said without a look to spare to the red dragon.

“What if they try to take us away from you, too?” he asked. He was closer to her than she had thought and she could feel his warm body pressed against her leg. The top ridge on his back reached her mid-thigh. Had they really grown that much? She reached down and stroked his soft hide gently.

“You will be with me however long you want,” she said. “I will never send you away or let someone force you away.”

“Do you promise?” he asked.

“Of course she promises,” Emerald said, but there was a worried pitch in her voice and she looked away when Pandora turned her head to her.

Serene’s hand held tighter. Pandora had spent too much time staring at the floor. They were already a building that stood tall in the large cavern of the underdark. It was molded from black stone and in the shadows of the violet light carvings of dragons and elves could be seen. There was also a strange lizard-like creature cowering under their daggers and claws. Their hands were raised in surrender, fear danced in their eyes in the steady light, but the dragons and the elves killed them none the less.

Pandora stepped away from her cousin, entrapped by the scene. She stumbled on Rubio but caught herself before she lost too much of her balance.

“Are you all right?” Serene asked. Pandora had not dropped Serene’s hand and she had nearly tumbled down with her.

Pandora said nothing. She stared at the carvings on the building and read the silent story that it told. She heard the whispers in her mind and her heart was filled with sadness for the lizard folk that fell at the blades and claws. Blood dripped from the walls and a wail pierced into her heart that sounded like slaughtered hatchlings. There were no hatchlings in the depiction, just terrified lizard folk that knew they were going to die.

Her hand was up in the air, reaching out for the lizard folk that were dieing by the hundreds and bleeding their red blood down the building.

“Pandora,” Serene said and shook her. “Are you all right?”

Pandora shook her head. “No,” she said. “I don’t think I am.” She wanted to cry, but dragons looked at her with suspicion and she could feel a circle closing in around her. Fear slid its icy fingers around her heart and squeezed. She gripped her chest and shook her head. What was wrong with her?

Serene moved closer to her and looked frantically around at the dragons circling in toward them. “Pandora, what is the matter? Pandora?”

Then the world was quiet except for Serene’s voice. Pandora let out a relieved explosion of air and then took a deep breath and sighed. She glanced up at the building again. It was silent and flat to her, and her heart ached at the loss of emotion that she had felt. She took note of her surroundings and saw that the dragons were circled around her legs, staring out at the Underdark dragons suspiciously.

They leaned into each other and whispered hastily in a language that Pandora could not understand. Greg was leaning forward and staring intently at one of the pairs. When they noticed they stopped talking and turned away.

“Come,” Hannin said with less warmth and welcome than he had before. “The Lady is waiting and you are wasting our time.”

Pandora narrowed her eyes at the dragon and a familiar sensation of restlessness prickled at her skin and crawled through her body. She felt as if something were moving and growing inside of her and trying to break free. She blinked and shook her head again. Her eyes moved to the building and she could not stop looking at it until she was inside.

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