46. A HISTORY OF DRAGONS

Xivan’s story

The Afterlife

Just after fleeing Xaloma

The Lash rose high out of the water, which flowed off her sides to crash back into the ocean in sprays of black and silver.

Xivan felt like laughing. Of course. Of fucking course.

The funny thing was, the Lash looked much better than the last time Xivan had seen her. Gone were the cataract eyes, the rotting and discolored flesh, the pale hide that spoke to a body long since past the point where it should continue to function. And yet, there was only one reason that could be true here, in this place.

Someone had slain the Lash.

As Xivan contemplated exactly what she might be able to do—this was her world now, right? She should be able to do something.

“Xivan.” The Lash’s voice was a familiar earthquake rumble. “That is you, isn’t it? It’s so hard to tell sometimes. You’re all such tiny things.”

Talea flashed Xivan a concerned look, but Xivan waved her back.

“Yes, it’s me,” Xivan answered. “What are you doing here?”

“You never struck me as that dumb before,” the Lash said. “I would think it’s obvious what I’m doing here.” The kraken’s voice rose then. “I was betrayed.”

“Betrayed,” Xivan said. The number of suspects was low, simply because there were few “people” that the kraken allowed anywhere near her. “Not Boji?”

Xivan had assumed the slimy little toad had run after the battle on Devors, but if he’d been foolish enough to return to the Lash …

“Drehemia,” the Lash said lowly. “Drehemia betrayed me.”

“Oh,” Talea said. “I’m so sorry.”

Janel began quietly cursing. Xivan suspected she knew why. Because depending on just why such a betrayal had occurred, Drehemia might well have absconded with two separate Cornerstones—Grimward, the stone that the Lash had carried, and the Name of All Things, which had been used to stabilize Drehemia’s mental state.

So depending on the story, this was either bad or unbelievably bad.

The kraken’s tentacles made whirls and eddies in the water, constantly in motion. But she wasn’t attacking, and she didn’t seem to be in any rush to leave either.

“What is it you want?” Xivan asked.

The Daughter of Laaka turned her head so she could stare at Xivan with one obscenely large eye, glittering golden in the faint light. “You’re the new caretaker of this realm, are you not?”

Xivan blinked. She wouldn’t have thought it that obvious, but …

“Yes,” she admitted. “I am.”

“I thought as much. You have the scent about you.” The Lash somehow managed to convey a sniffing motion. “I never liked your predecessor. I got along much better with the original before they left.”

Everyone froze.

“I’m sorry?” Talea said. “Did you just—” She swallowed. “Did you just say that there was a Death before Khaemezra?”

The Lash paused. A stretching, creaking sound filled the air as the kraken shifted her position so an eye could stare directly at Talea. The salt sea smell of dead fish and storm-tossed kelp hung heavy and thick.

Then the kraken matriarch began to laugh. Great, massive vibrato-rich peals of laughter that sent out ripples along the surface of the water. She even went so far as to slap her tentacles against the ocean waves the way one might slap a thigh.

“You—” She laughed some more. “Did you really think yours were the first?”

Janel stared at Xivan and Talea, wide-eyed.

“Um,” she said. “Uh—yes? Yes, we did. Mostly because we were the ones that invented the way to do it. Or Relos Var did, anyway.”

“And who told you that? Relos Var?”

Xivan felt like the earth under her feet had just shifted. What? “Are you saying…” She mentally shook herself. Was it possible that the Lash was just fucking with them? But if so, what did she have to gain by suggesting that Relos Var was a liar? And how the hell did a damn Daughter of Laaka know who Relos Var was, anyway? “Okay. So what happened to them, then? This first caretaker?”

Janel mouthed, “Thank you,” at Xivan.

“Oh, that explains so much. Allow me to further extrapolate,” the Lash said in a silky-smooth voice. “You thought that some of your people took on the shape of dragons out of … coincidence? Pure happenstance? Luck?”

She lost herself in laughter again.

Xivan shook her head. She had no idea what to think.

Janel didn’t seem to either, but she pressed forward. “We thought they took the shape of dragons because the ritual went astray. Because it was flawed.”

“Not flawed. Just not meant for your people,” the Lash corrected. “The first Death was a dragon, naturally. But then all the dragons left.”

“Left?” Talea looked every bit as lost and confused as Xivan felt. “Where … where did they go?”

“As if I know?” The Lash slapped another tentacle against the water, this time less in humor than frustration. “I miss them still. Who do you think created the glyphs, sang the magics into being, wove the strands of creation into melodies of light and matter? My people didn’t leave glyphs carved on land for you to find. Why would we leave such a record in a place where we never go?”

“Glyphs?” Xivan tugged on Janel’s arm. “Is she talking about the Name of All Things?”

“Yes and no,” Janel said, still looking dumbfounded. “Same idea, older origin. This is … You’re saying that we … Just to make sure there’s no misunderstanding. You’re saying that Rev’arric didn’t create the Guardians?”

“I’m saying that you, like a hermit crab, moved into a seashell already built by another and then complimented yourselves for your skills at architecture. No, you were not the first.” The Lash lowered herself until her eyes were much nearer to the three women. “The dragons came here and built and shaped things and then later realized we were in the world too. But unlike your lot, they were honorable and left so we might live in peace. We never considered how much damage might be caused by what they’d left behind, if it fell into hands such as yours.”

Xivan’s stomach tightened; she felt overwhelmed. She reminded herself that all of this—while interesting and probably important—did nothing to accomplish their reason for being here. She thought back to the conversation before the Lash had accidentally shaken their entire view of the world and their place in it.

“I’m glad you like me better,” Xivan said, “and I assume that this means you want something from me?” She paused. “I don’t know if I can Return you. I can try.”

“You cannot,” the Lash said. “My corporeal body is cinder and ash. I’ll go to the wellspring and start anew, as is my right. But I wouldn’t mind … I wouldn’t mind you doing what I cannot.”

“And what would that be?” Xivan asked.

The Lash was silent for several slow, heavy seconds. “Why were you confronting Xaloma?” she finally asked.

Xivan glanced over at Talea, but most especially Janel. Just to make sure that it wasn’t a poor idea to share this information. Janel gave a single nod.

“She has someone of ours. We wish to rescue him,” Xivan said.

The Lash pondered that piece of information. “If I help you, will you kill Relos Var?”

“Um.” Janel cleared her throat. “To be honest, we were planning on doing that anyway.”

“Then I will help you in this ocean for lack of being able to help you in the other.”

Xivan exhaled. Part of her wanted so much to just laugh and laugh. She never thought she’d be allying with the Lash. Doing so with her full consent.

“You’ll distract Xaloma while we steal our friend from her lair?” Xivan asked.

“No,” the Lash said.

Xivan scowled. “Then how exactly—”

“Your friend isn’t in her lair.” She raised a tentacle the way someone else might raise a finger to stifle any objection. “I can smell a human swimming in my waters for miles, and I tell you that you three were the only ones anywhere near Xaloma’s sleeping lair. I will keep my word and help, but part of that is not letting you throw yourselves against the current. Your friend isn’t there.”

Janel threw up her hands.

Xivan plopped herself down on the beach. “Perfect,” she said. “I have no idea where to look next.” She glared at the old woman who sat farther up the strand. “Very helpful.”

The old woman waved a hand dismissively at her. “I can’t be right about everything. Clearly, Thaena had some other plans in mind for the man.”

She made an effort not to grind her teeth. “We need to find him!”

Khae didn’t seem especially sympathetic. “Then I guess you’d better see if Khaemezra’s souls ended up here and ask her.”

Janel sighed. She looked about ten seconds from lighting the entire beach on fire, and Xivan felt much the same.

“Lash?” Talea asked in a tentative, hesitant voice. “How did you end up here, anyway? I mean, I know you said you were betrayed, but … what happened?”

“Oh,” the Lash said.

Both Xivan and Janel turned to look at the kraken when she didn’t answer.

But it turned out she was just formulating her thoughts. In a deep, rumbling voice, she said, “Perhaps it won’t be too unexpected if I say that what ‘happened’ was Relos Var.”