Chapter 326 The Truth About Altheris The Dragon

Her breath caught.

"If he hadn’t been," said Kaelen, "you’d have been alone."

She burst into tears.

It was not graceful. It broke out of her in a great ugly shuddering sob, and she put both hands over her face. Kaelen’s arms came around her, over Thorne’s, so that she was enclosed in a warm shell of two men. She leaned against them and wept, loud and uncontrolled, in the middle of a freezing cavern in front of three ancient dragons.

Nobody said a word.

When it passed, she was limp.

She lifted her head, hiccuping, and found Draeven standing a pace away. He had not touched her. He had waited, quiet and steady, with his hands at his sides.

"Thank you," he said.

"For what?"

"For telling us." His eyes were bright. "I know what it cost."

"I should have said sooner."

"You said it when you could." His mouth moved, faintly. "That is the only time anyone can."

She laughed, damply.

"Now we know the shape of the mask," said Thorne, from above her head.

"The mask."

"The thing that has been hiding you. It was never magic you made. It was his. He wove it. And it has held, all these years, because it was made by something very old and very strong." His arms tightened. "We have been looking for a dragon in the wrong place."

"The palace," said Kaelen.

"The palace. When he was in a mountain all along."

"Chained," said Draeven slowly.

He turned.

The three great dragons had not moved. They lay coiled in the torchlight, immense and silent, with their golden eyes half lidded. They looked, Morgana thought suddenly, very tired. Not in the way of someone who needs sleep. In the way of someone who has been carrying a very heavy thing for a very long time.

"You know him," said Draeven.

"We do," said Auryn.

"You know where he is."

"We do."

"And you called her, here, tonight, because of him."

A long pause.

"Yes," said Aeris.

The torches burned low.

Nobody had sat down. They stood in a loose ring on the cold black floor, the four of them and the three, in the half dark, with the glimmering walls rising on every side. Morgana had stopped shivering. Thorne’s coat was warm around her. Kaelen had not let go of her hand.

"Tell it," said Draeven.

Auryn lowered his head.

"It was long ago," he said. "Before the kings. Before the curse. There were many of us, then. A dozen great dragons, and a hundred lesser. We ruled the north and the south, and the mountains were ours." His voice was slow, and deep, and very old. "Atheris was the oldest. The first. He remembered the world before the first fire."

"He was our teacher," said Aeris.

"Our elder," said Pyros, gruffly.

"And then?"

"And then there was a war."

The word fell into the cavern like a stone.

"I will not tell you how it began," said Auryn. "It is a long story, and a shameful one, and not mine alone. It is enough to say that men did something, and we did something, and between the two, a very great evil was done. A curse was laid."

"On the kings," said Draeven.

"On us." Aeris’s voice was low. "The kings were born into it. Their dragons were bound into it. But it was laid on us first. All of us. The last of the old ones."

"And Atheris...."

"He paid the price."

Aeris’s eye closed.

"He took the curse’s anchor into himself,"she said. "He is the chain. The whole of it. It runs through him like a root through a stone, and it is bound to the three of us by his blood." She opened her eyes. "So long as he is bound, the curse cannot break."

Nobody spoke.

"So that’s why you need him free," said Thorne slowly.

"Yes."

"And you think she can do it."

"We know she can," said Auryn.

Morgana’s heart gave a great bound.

"Me?" she said.

"You."

"I’m....I can’t....I’m nothing. I’m a maid. I don’t know how to...." She stopped. She swallowed. "I don’t even know what I am."

"No," said Auryn gently. "Not yet."

"What does that mean?"

"It means we will not tell you."

"What?"

"It is not ours to say."He lowered his great head, until his golden eye was level with hers. Behind it she could see a very small, very distant, very tired light, like a candle in a far window. "You will learn it. In time. In the right way, from the right voice. If we told you now, in this cave, you would not believe us."

"I don’t believe you now."

"No."

"Then why...."

"Because there is something we can tell you," said Auryn.

He drew breath.

Beside him, Pyros shifted. Aeris’s wing rustled, torn and ragged against her side. The air in the cavern had changed. It had gone very still, very watchful, as though the three great dragons were gathering themselves to lift something heavy.

"The chain is not only on him,"said Auryn.

Morgana stared.

"It was forged from our fire."

The words fell slowly, one by one.

"Every link of it. We gave it. We made it. It was the price of the bargain, and none of us have ever been able to take it back." His voice was very quiet. "It holds him. And it holds us. And it is killing us."

Silence.

"For two hundred years it has drawn on us. A little, and a little, and a little more. Our scales dim. Our wings tear." His eye flicked to Aeris, and away. "Our fire grows cold. We are not what we were. We are barely what we are."

"Pyros said you were dying," said Kaelen hoarsely.

"Yes."

"How long?"

"A year. Perhaps less."Auryn’s voice was perfectly steady. "Perhaps a great deal less. I cannot say. It is faster now. It has been faster since the mask began to fail."

"Why?"

"Because he is stirring."

Morgana’s breath caught.

"He knows," said Auryn. "He feels it, in his chain. He feels the mask cracking. He feels you. He has not moved in eighteen years. Now he is waking."He lowered his head. "And when he wakes, child, when he truly wakes, one of two things will happen."

"What?" she whispered.

"If you free him," said Auryn, "the chain breaks. The curse lifts. The kings are free. The realm is free." His eyes held hers. "And we burn with him."