Part 33 (1/2)
”And when you were chosen, you were given this sword?”
”Chosen-”
”Look, Maggaron-if the Arkon is right, she's going to arrive here one more time. Only one. I have no idea why he thinks there should be nine of her, but I'm willing to trust him-we have that much history.”
”And you and I do not.”
”I'm also willing to trust him because I don't have any choice.” She hesitated and then added, ”We don't have a lot of female Dragons in the Empire. By not a lot, I mean none that I've personally encountered. My instincts are saying that none is pretty close to what the rest of the Dragon Court expected to encounter, and finding one as a corpse-seven times-is not making any of them any happier.
”But the Arkon is old, he's a Dragon, and even the Emperor respects his advice and his opinion. I'm going to trust him; there's a ninth Bellusdeo coming. She might already be here; we might already be too late. You can hide behind secrets all you want, but when you were controlled by the Shadows, don't you think they learned what you know? They had your name.”
Maggaron bowed his head.
”If I don't know what I need to know, if I don't understand what's going on, there's a chance I'll screw up. There's a good chance I've already screwed up,” she added. ”But I only get one more chance.”
”You have my name,” he said.
She flinched. ”...Yes.”
”Could you not do as others have done, and use that name against me?”
”...Yes.”
”It would preserve what little self-respect I have, Chosen.”
Kaylin folded her arms across her chest; Severn came to stand beside her. ”Can we just skip the part where we torture each other horribly and pretend we've already done it?”
His eyes widened slightly. They were green. This confirmed her suspicion that green was the Norannir version of surprise.
”I don't have a lot of self-respect myself. What I've got, I cling to,” she continued. ”And forcing the information out of you that way would destroy some of it.”
”Why, then, did you take my name?”
”You already know the answer.”
Green faded slowly into brown, a color that she seldom saw in the Norannir. ”Yes, Chosen. I do. Bellusdeo spoke to you today. But in some fas.h.i.+on that you will not understand, Bellusdeo also chose you.”
”I had these marks-”
”Ah, no. You are Chosen for reasons that not even the Dragons can understand. I meant the sword, of course.”
She looked at its hilt dubiously.
”If the sword did not desire it, Chosen, you could not have lifted it. Believe that it was tried during my...captivity.”
”It was a gigantic greatsword made of Shadow, Maggaron!”
”Yes. It was. Because I was its wielder. It is part of me.” He looked down; Kaylin had never been so aware of the differences in their height. Somehow, the news she had feared would break him completely had given him strength instead. ”Did Mejrah explain what purpose the Ascendants served?”
”More or less.”
”She also explained that only a handful were chosen?”
”And the rest were returned to their homes and their families and eventually became Elders, yes.”
”Did she tell you that the Ascendants became immortal?”
”Not in so many words, no. But she implied that Bellusdeo had promised to transform or change the children of the Norannir so that they might know a life as long as a Dragon's-which is effectively forever.”
He nodded. His eyes had shaded from their unusual brown to a more familiar Norannir blue. ”What she did not-what she could not-tell you was how that was achieved. Tell me, do you think the Norannir have true names?”
Kaylin shook her head. ”They're mortal.”
”Yet you now hold mine. Have you not wondered how it is that I have a name?”
”Well, yes, if you put it that way.”
”I was given a part of Bellusdeo's name.”
Kaylin stared at him for a long moment. ”I want to say that's impossible.”
Tara, who hadn't interrupted until this moment said, ”It is impossible.”
”Lady,” Maggaron said, inclining his head to Tara. After a pause, he actually got down on one knee. Kaylin suspected this was less a gesture of supplication than a gesture of respect; it was hard to look down from that differential in height while still maintaining awe. ”It is not impossible. I am proof of that.”
But Tara shook her head. Turning to Kaylin, she said, ”I would like to examine the sword more carefully.”
Kaylin visibly wilted, but nodded. ”You're going to have to help me resheathe it, though.” She caught the hilt and pulled it clear of the sheath; it came out so easily she stumbled backward slightly. Severn caught her. Kaylin handed the sword to Tara, or tried; Tara took a step back as the runes on the flat of the blade began to glow. They were a shade between purple and blue.
Tara's eyes lost their whites as she concentrated. Eyes now obsidian, she said, ”Maggaron, after Bellusdeo gave you this sword, did you see her again?”
He was silent.
Kaylin, however, asked a slightly different question. ”Did Bellusdeo give you this sword?”
”It was left for me,” he replied.
”Tara? What do you see?”
”It's not what I see, Kaylin. What do you see? Look carefully.”
”I see a sword with engravings on it.”
”You don't recognize the runes?”
Kaylin shook her head. ”Do you see them?”
”No.”
”...What?”