TIWAZ WOKE AS the sky began to brighten with the rising sun. She stretched in a methodical ritual that ended with her standing. Doom looked up from the parchment he was writing on with the burnt tip of a branch with a small smile. “Did you sleep well?”

“You need to sleep, too,” was her sharp response, eyes flashing with annoyance. “We are supposed to take turns keeping watch. You should have woken me so you could sleep, too.”

“I’m not worried.” He tapped the parchment lightly. “We are a half a day away from our goal. I can make it that far and sleep after we set up camp again.” She gave him a sidelong glare then snorted in mild disgust as she began packing her gear.

She walked over as she slipped her backpack on and looked over his shoulder at the map. “That is what you use to guide us? How can you understand any of that? It doesn’t look like anything,” she demanded, waving her hands at it. “It is all lines and squiggles! There’s nothing that makes any sense on there.” She put her hands on her hips. “How can you keep track of anything with that?”

“The ‘lines and squiggles’ are symbols and names. I could teach you to—”

“No.” She held up both hands in a warding gesture. “I am a gladiator. You finish doing whatever you’re doing, I’ll go stand watch.” She said over her shoulder as she headed to the large rock, “Over here.”

“You complain about not having any skills outside the arena, then you don’t want to learn,” he muttered under his breath.

He winced a bit when she responded tartly. “You can read, I trust you, and the only thing trying to learn something so foreign would do right now is confuse me and give me a headache. Neither would serve me well if we come across something I need to be ready to fight.” He met her glare before she crossed her arms and looked away in a huff.

“Your hearing seems to have gotten a lot sharper,” the gromek noted as he finished marking the map and tucked it away again. He hefted his backpack and secured it on his back before taking his quarterstaff to use as a walking stick. “Or are you just now starting to pay attention to things around you instead of focusing on what’s right in front of you?”

“I don’t know,” she answered after some time, expression unreadable. “That I do not know bothers me very much.”

Doom remained silent as he considered his friend. “Once we find a place to settle, I want to start teaching you as I had been taught by Urbin.” He felt her eyes on him but did not turn to look. “He had never heard of my kind before Alimar gave me to him to be trained. He said he has trained others who were of other races in his art, so the first month was nothing but determining what gromeks could do.”

“I am well aware of what I can do,” Tiwaz stated tonelessly. “I am very good at what I can do.”

“Yes, you are exceptional at what you can do.” She glanced sideways at him as he qualified, “Inside of the arenas. But, as far as we know, you are either not human, or you are a human with very definite abilities not seen in most. Alimar used you for what he wanted, but only what he could control. He wouldn’t have needed to put glyphs on you to constrain you if there wasn’t a need. I am certain of that.”

Her pace slowed as she considered his words. “You think…there are things I can do?” She held her hands up, looking at them with uncertainty. “Things that I do not even know I can do?”

He nodded. “I am sure of it, Ti. It is really the only thing that makes any sense about how you healed on the beach and in Dramaden. We know you have magic, at least on an instinctive level.”

“You are accusing me of being a mageborn?” the woman demanded, fists clenched. “Like Alimar?”

“Of course not like Alimar.” Yellow eyes flashed in irritation. “You are nothing like him. But I watched your wounds close, Ti. I saw them close without the aid of any outside magic.” He caught her hand, pushing her sleeve back to expose her wrist. Bandages peeked out from beneath the bracer. “Every time it happened, your wrists bled.”

Her expression reflected distress. “No. I don’t have magic. I can’t—”

“Why not?” he asked her. “What else would Alimar want to suppress than something that could endanger him? Think about it. Your wrists bled when you threw off his compulsion spell, too.” He clasped her hand in both of his reassuringly. “I would have blamed the gold shackles, except they bled since you broke them.”

Tiwaz trembled with emotion. “I didn’t…I couldn’t remember…” She looked up at him with a stricken expression. “Doom, forgive me, if I had known there was magic in me,” she began, spitting the hated word as though she bore the soul of evil unknowingly.

“Tiwaz, relax,” he urged, putting as much reassurance in his voice as possible. “Whatever the reason these things happened, native ability or divine intervention, I am eternally grateful for it. You stood up to Alimar’s compulsion. You healed enough to keep you alive. That is all that is important. Nothing else matters to me.”

“You think…you think something else may have done it?” she asked in a small voice, begging him. “I can’t have magic.”

“It is possible,” he assured. “But I am as determined to make sure you stay alive and free just as much as you are determined to make sure the same for me.”

He looked towards the towering mountains in the distance. “That is why I decided to go to Dragons Gate instead of to the Northern Territories. I realize they are part of the Southern Wildlands, and you insisted we not go there, but they are closer. Shurakh Arln is part of the Western Empire. If he ever looks while we stay in this territory, there will be no hiding from him.”

She opened her mouth to argue, then shut it again, frowning. “I suppose it will be safe enough if you think it will be.” She turned her gaze towards the distant peaks. “Dragons live there and they hate anything not draconic. Alimar avoided them because the power of the oldest of them was greater than his.”

“Then it’s perfect.” Doom resumed walking towards the turbulent border between the Western Empire and the Southern Wildlands fractures, baleful winds howling. “I trust dragons to be more honorable than Alimar,” he pointed out. “And more reasonable.”

“They are still dragons and we are not. They might consider it honorable to step on us then feed us to their offspring.”

Doom smirked. “My, don’t we have a positive outlook.”

The curtain of turbulence marking the physical border between the Western Empire and the Southern Territories roared, ending their conversation briefly as the winds whipped around them. He teased her about vanity when she insisted on stopping to redo her wind loosened braids after pushing through the chaotic wall of wind and dirt. All levity vanished when they heard a noise out of place with the ceaseless rush of border winds.

“You heard that?” She nodded, body tensed. He scanned the thick brush, his quarterstaff at the ready. A long-necked reptile with hateful eyes emerged from the trees, fanning forearm-wings as it roared in challenge. He glanced at Tiwaz in alarm when she drew her short sword and dropped her backpack, eyes locked on the creature. “Ti! Get back from that dragon! It could—”

“It isn’t a dragon,” she responded mechanically, all her focus on the massive animal as it crashed out of the greenery into the more open area. Balanced on back legs, it fanned its wings, lashing a thick tail that counterbalanced its front half. Between Doom and Tiwaz, it looked between them in angered confusion. “It’s a wyvern. I have fought these before. They have no magic. They cannot even fly.”

The comment startled Doom from his attention on the animal. “You what?!”

She did not answer, spinning her blade in her hand. The sunlight reflecting from the blade captured the wyvern’s full attention. It snapped at her, but she jumped back just enough that it missed her, but remained close enough to allow it to believe it could catch her. It snapped again, then yelped when she brought the hilt of the blade down on a soft spot on its nose. It growled with menace. Doom swung his quarterstaff against its leg to divide its attention between Tiwaz and himself. He grunted as though he had struck rock. That it did not even seem to notice him made the gromek’s heart sink in dismay. “Tiwaz, just run!”

The woman ignored her companion, focused on the giant reptile. “Come, poor excuse for a lizard! You disgraced castoff of dragon dung!” It lunged at her again, and again, she jumped out of its way at the last minute. “Try and catch me!” She rolled out of the way as it grabbed a mouthful of dirt.

Doom looked over the beast and noticed one of its protective spinal plates was missing. With all of his strength, he brought the quarterstaff down on that tender spot. Despite being made of hardwood, the weapon splintered where it connected to the beast. Its legs collapsed, forcing it to try to get back to its feet and stumbling because of the shock to its nerves. Its head swung around to roar hatefully at the unarmed gromek.

Tiwaz took advantage of the distraction, leaping onto its neck and bringing the short sword down with both hands, driving the blade into the base of its skull. She sensed a dull snap reverberate through her hands. She swore, unable to get away before its thrashing flung her several yards. She landed on her back and did not move.

“Ti!” Doom felt his blood congeal in absolute horror at the stillness of his friend. He stood there, uncertain what he could do weaponless against this monster that just would not fall. He looked over his shoulder as a shadow fell across him and he hit the ground, covering his head. A brown-hued, ruby-eyed true dragon emerged and breathed fire, drawing the monster’s attention away from the pair. Another dragon, emerald-eyed and the color of grey stone, landed with a thump, biting the wyvern’s throat, holding it as it thrashed until it fell still.

Weaponless, Doom ran to Tiwaz while the wyvern occupied the dragons. He examined her, frowning when he saw blood in her hair on the back of her head where she’d struck a rock, unwillingly reminded of the day he had met her. Despite expecting death at the claws of the draconic pair, he grabbed the first cloth-like thing from his backpack, folding and pressing it against the wound. Her expression twitched in reflexive reaction to the pain.

Once the wyvern was dead, the pair of dragons grumbled conversationally to each other. After several tense minutes listening to the pair of four-legged, two-winged reptilians, Doom grumbled under his breath, “Just kill us and get it over with, would you?”

“You would be dead already if that was our intention,” the ruby-eyed dragon pointed out, its tones hostile. It flapped its wings once, the gust of wind blowing the hood of his cloak back and revealing his face. “Why have you come here, youth?”

A little unnerved that the dragon spoke, Doom hesitated. Assured that Tiwaz’s wound was simply unfortunate and not critical, he turned to look at the pair, then lowered his eyes with respect. “My companion and I seek sanctuary within Dragons Gate. We are fleeing slavery from a magic user who thinks we are dead. At least, he believes that right now.”

The green-eyed, stone-grey mottled dragon settled itself like a lazy feline. “I told you coming home for a little while was a worthy cause.”

“Is that so?” The ruby-eyed one, patterned in shades of brown to black, sat primly. It wrapped its long tail around its legs, the spiked tip twitching. He looked past Doom to Tiwaz. “She is a pink skin. Why do you fuss so much over the small fleshling? You are born of a higher breed.”

Doom puzzled over the latter statement before the meaning behind the question registered. He growled, the spikes on the back of his neck rising. “She is my friend.”

“So?” the ruby-eyed one replied.

“So? So?! I thought dragons were an honorable race!” the gromek shouted, both dragons’ heads pulling back in surprise as they regarded him. He did not cower when the ruby-eyed dragon narrowed its eyes with a growl. “If someone saved your life, would you not help them in return?” Doom knew the foolishness in criticizing creatures that could kill with a thought as easily as a flick of their tails. But he could tolerate no more questioning of his protection of Tiwaz.

The grey dragon rumbled in amusement, still lying on its side. “I told you, my dear brother.” It made a shooing gesture with one forepaw. “Go. I will attend to them.” The brown dragon snorted, turning away. He crouched then sprang into the air, kicking up dirt and dust as he pumped his wings to get airborne, then vanished. The grey dragon turned to Doom. “Go on. Attend to your companion. She does not seem to be doing too well. Not unexpected. Even we dragons find tangling with wyvern filth challenging.”

Uncertain whether he could trust the dragon or not, Doom knelt by Tiwaz where could watch it from the corner of his eye. He examined her, looking for more injuries. “I do not understand. Not that I am not grateful, but why aren’t you killing us, Dragon?”

The dragon’s rumble of laughter was unnerving. “Kill you? Whatever for? You amuse me. As does your little friend.”

As the dragon spoke, he lifted Tiwaz’s shirt to see bruises over broken ribs begin to vanish. With a sigh, he began to unlace her bracers to replace the bandages he knew were blood-soaked again. The moment he exposed one of her wrists, the glyphs writhing wildly, the dragon suddenly loomed over them, its teeth bared in barely contained rage. “What is this? Who put runic symbols on her flesh?! Such an act is forbidden by divine law, agreed to by even the most selfish of gods. Who dared such an atrocity?”

Doom raised his arm to protect his face from the dragon’s spittle-inducing fury. He explained as he bared Tiwaz’s other wrist to let the dreadful, unhealing wounds air. The symbols seemed to twist and coil more wildly than he’d ever seen them, like snakes aware of being in the proximity of danger and unable to flee. “Our former master, Alimar the Black. We broke our physical shackles, but those…I do not know. She said he told her nothing but a god could remove them. I am loathe to believe anything that bastard ever said as truth.”

“Your former master knows his art intimately well, if he could create such intricate patterns that obscure his crime from divine senses, though not from physical ones.” The dragon mastered its fury and spoke more calmly, its confusion plain. “If she believes only a god can lift them, then why does she not pray for deliverance from this evil? I do not know a single god who would allow this atrocity to remain. She must be aware they are killing her.”

“What? Killing her? No.” Doom stared in shock. “No, it can’t be possible.” He looked at the woman’s pale face, his shaking hand touching her hair. “It has been too long. She has had them since Alimar stole us from our families ten years ago. She has survived…so many horrible things done to her. She nearly died more than once just in the past few months since we got away. She can’t be…”

The dragon exhaled, its warm breath bathing the two in a metallic, sulfur-y smell that was oddly calming. “She is very strong, unusually strong for any mortal. That she is still alive is remarkable, really. Even the longest lived things would not last beyond five years of such heinous defilement. Normally. Nevertheless, runic magic was never meant to be placed on living things. The energy they serve as conduits for is typically too disruptive to living flesh.”

“Then why now?” Doom begged. “If all they did was stop her from using her own magic, why would they be killing her now?”

“They have always been killing her,” the dragon replied, its voice gentle for him but still holding a seething fury at the situation. “Her own magic has been fighting back, as a body fights infection. Unfortunately, as strong as she is, utterly untrained in her natural gifts, her endurance is nearing its end.” It lowered its head, bumping Tiwaz’s arm as it sniffed her. “She might last until spring. But that is being optimistic.”

“Spring?” he whispered. “Is that why you didn’t tell me about the glyphs, Ti? Why you tried to hide them from me? Is that why you kept trying to convince me to abandon you so I wouldn’t find out?” Shaking with emotion, Doom yelled his grief to the heavens, then slammed his fists into the ground once.

Spent, he gathered her in his arms, shoulders slumped in defeat. “If you’d have told me,” he whispered, “I could have kept my last promise to you. I could have found some way to free you of this. Found some god. Any god. One who would have listened to free you.” He drew in a deep breath, then exhaled. “So I wouldn’t lose you.”

Studying the heartsick gromek, the dragon said with great reticence, “I could remove the glyphs.”

Doom looked up sharply, the spark of hope rekindled. “Is that why Alimar hated dragons? You are as powerful as gods? You can help her?”

The dragon heaved a sigh. “I have the ability, but I cannot remain here long enough for her to awaken. I have been here overlong as is. The effort would make returning here impossible for some time, and leaving to return later would hinder my ability to effectively remove all taint from them.”

“Why would you need her to be awake?” Doom wondered. He felt as though he was missing some important fact and hating the feeling of ignorance.

The dragon stretched its wings and folded them back. “She must agree to repay me for removing them. To be honest, I would be more than willing to remove them because their existence is beyond criminal. But, I am aware that she has been quite adamant in refusing charity and I would never betray that desire. And before you so gallantly offer to stand in her stead, she must agree to this. You will have other obligations,” it stated enigmatically. Before he could utter a word, the dragon asked, “Tell me, young one. Is she an honorable being? Would she repay a debt you agreed to on her behalf?”

Doom snorted at the question. “To have these things removed? I think she would do anything short of selling her soul to lose them. Her honor is her life. Reclaiming it is what nearly killed her and allowed us to escape slavery.”

“Very well, then.” With great care, the dragon scooped the unconscious woman into its large hand-like paws. As it spoke in a low rumble, Tiwaz flinched, moaning, but remained unconscious. After several minutes, she quieted.

Satisfied, the dragon handed her back to Doom just as gently as it had picked the woman up. “The tainted magic has been removed.”

“Thank you,” Doom said humbly, holding his friend tight against him. “Tell me, Dragon, is there a way to restore her memories?” When the massive creature tilted its head in puzzlement, he explained, “She had suffered an injury during her capture that robbed her of all memories of her past. Not even the potions Alimar forced on her healed that. She doesn’t even know if she is truly human or just looks like one.”

“I see. That is worrisome, given she will start displaying several of the traits those evil things had repressed, just as your maturity had been repressed by enchantments on your shackles. The spells binding you must have only been on your physical shackles, as I sense none of the poison she bore.” The dragon suddenly looked amused. “I am given to wonder if your former master has any idea the die he cast for himself.” The dragon rose, stretching much as a cat would, then preparing to take flight.

“Wait!” The dragon paused, looking over its shoulder at Doom. “Please, at least tell me if Tiwaz is human. So when she wakes up I can—”

The dragon looked thoughtful, wings relaxing slightly. “Magic is a strange thing, youth. There are nearly as many energies as there are colors in the rainbow, sounds that can be heard, and tastes in the air, individually and combined. Many thousands of years ago, high elves ruled all the other races and the land itself. The fractures are the result of the many enslaved races breaking the magical chains of their cruel masters. The Western Empire, Southern Wildlands, Northern Territories, Eastern Kingdoms, even the tiny Crossroads where they all meet, are but a small number of them.

“Magic is weak in the Eastern Kingdoms because the humans who live there renounced magic and the rest of the world beyond, blaming it for the high elves rule. It is tamed in the Western Empire. However, in the north and south, the heart of the land beats with its pulse. In the north, so long as you are in harmony with the land, it will stay in harmony with you. But, in the south, it is wild, violent, and merciless. Any from the outside who stay too long will be consumed by the land if they do not yield to it and allow it to change them.

“Is she human? The easiest answer is no, simply because she was native to the Southern Wildlands, and little remains what it was originally within its domain. Removing the constraints allows her to live, but those glyphs were like a dam holding back a mountain lake that had grown to be a sea. Not even I know what I have released, save that it should not kill her.”

Doom nodded. “I suppose that will have to do.”

“Be assured, I will someday collect my debt from her.” The dragon turned to leave again, then paused as though remembering something nearly forgotten. “Oh, and as long as you bring no harm to the draconic denizens here, you both are welcome to take shelter within Dragons Gate. At least until your destiny calls you.” Before he could question the ominous addition, the dragon sprang aloft, then vanished in a flash of light as the previous dragon had done.

“Doom?” Tiwaz whispered weakly as he maneuvered to pick up her dropped backpack without putting her down.

“Shhh,” he soothed. “I’m here. Everything is fine.” She nodded slightly and passed out again.