Chapter 184: Life Or Death? [3] (1/2)
”Very well.”
King Laggarma said hoarsely. Silver flecks swirled in his eyes, a hypnotic light that snared Icelin and wouldn't let go.
”I'll go with you to the dark places, as bloods. Only you. I hope neither of us gets lost.”
Chang Chang opened her mouth to reply, but an icy gust of wind cut off the words, filling her mouth and making her chest ache. The world fell away, and she was flying, soaring high above dozens of mountain peaks. In and out of the cloudbanks, she dived and reeled. Terror and elation filled Chang Chang as she soared upward to even more dizzying heights. Astral projection.
”What is this?”
She cried. She expected the wind to steal her voice, but instead a mighty roar split the air and shook the snow from the mountain peaks. Above her, the sun broke through the clouds and bathed the mountains in gold light.
”Look below you.”
King Laggarma's voice reverberated in her mind. Chang Chang recognized it, and yet the voice was different, bigger, and full of an immense, mind-shattering power barely kept in check. Chang Chang looked down and saw the shadow of a massive body of a white dragon on the unblemished snow. A pair of talon-tipped wings unfolded from its body, and its frilled neck ended in a thick, horned head.
By the heavens, Chang Chang thought. This can't be happening. If she'd possessed a body in this strange vision, she'd be trembling, weeping with the wrongness of what she saw. I can't do this. I can't ride a dragon's mind.
”You're not seeing the worst of it, girl. If you can't handle a simple flight, you'll go mad with what's to come.”
”You're not a dwarf at all. For centuries, you've ruled Myria, yet you're—”
Chang Chang said. The mountains fell away, and they flew over a vast pine forest just as a flock of crows broke from the trees and surrounded them. The birds screeched loudly in Chang Chang's ears and flew away.
”A dragon.”
King Laggarma finished for her. He glanced at Chang Chang and continued.
”I came to the dwarves over fourteen hundred years ago. When their ruler died, he appointed me, Laggarma the Clanless, his successor, knowing what I was, because he knew I could protect his people.”
”But why? I see your mind. You don't belong underground, in the dark.”
Chang Chang exclaimed. Images of open spaces and fresh, cold air blasting her in the face—it couldn't be a coincidence that these were the memories king Laggarma had sought first when he let her enter his mind.
”Neither do you. Yet here we are. Suffice to say, the dwarves needed me, and I needed them. Don't doubt that it was a fair exchange.”
King Laggarma said, his booming voice full of an unexpected humor.
”How?”
Chang Chang asked. The dragon's shadow rippled over the treetops. She couldn't stop staring at it, couldn't reconcile the dwarf she'd known these past several days with the creature whose mind she rode.
”Why? How? Do you really want to know, or are you still dumbstruck?”
King Laggarma echoed.
”Can you blame me? You could have warned me!”
”I am warning you. Where we're going next won't be pleasant. If you want to know how it was a fair bargain, I'll tell you. You've heard the stories of the king who becomes a mithral statue for decades, leaving his people to fend for themselves.”
King Laggarma said. All traces of humor disappeared.
”Do you sleep for that time? Is it something unique to … er … dragons? Some kind of hibernation?”
”In a way. It allows me to travel. When last I went to the stone, I was gone a very long time.”
”Where did you go?”
Chang Chang gasped as the forest dropped away. Suddenly, thousands of glittering lights surrounded them.
”I came here to the Astral Sea.”