Spear of Destiny by James Baldwin (little bear else holmelund minarik .TXT) 📕

softly. “The fear of oblivion. Of meaninglessness. Of pointlessness. In their terror of the vast, unknown universe, they attack it. They revile life, because it terrifies them to think that there is something with meaning, when they themselves have none.”

She led us through a narrow obsidian tunnel, barely big enough for Karalti and I to walk alongside each other. It was pitch dark, like walking into a wall of black velvet. But as we emerged, a soft ambient glow filled the room, reflected off an enormous lake of clear crystal as smooth as still water. Karalti pattered out on bare feet, her mouth hanging open, as Lahati’s shade drifted to the center of the room and submerged... through the crystal, down into the dark, still form that lay curled beneath it like a fly in amber.

Karalti let out a cry and sank down to her hands and knees, gazing down at the body of her ancestress. Lahati the Chrysanthemum Queen, ruler of the ancient dragon city of Hava Sahasi, was still beautiful in death. Unlike Karalti, most of her scales were a true jet black, save for a large starburst patch of white that bloomed from between her shoulders and out along her wings. Her long sweeping horns and elegant foreclaws were ringed with fine jewelry. Her elegant muzzle was sunken, but her eyes were closed, her expression peaceful.

I unequipped my shoes out of instinctive respect before joining Karalti. I rested a steadying hand on her shoulder.

“Blood of my blood. Child of my daughter’s daughter.” Lahati’s voice now came from all directions, curling from the air of the room. “You are everything I could have dreamed of, a flower who bloomed from a queen the Deceivers have striven to control and destroy. And because of this, you bear a great burden. There are few of us left, Karalti. So many dragons died in the Drachan War, and the ones who lived were enslaved by the Aesari and killed for the mana in their blood. That we survived at all is a miracle that we owe to the other races of Archemi, the humans, and Prrupt’meew who rose against the Aesari and toppled them. There are many more Solonkratsu alive on Daun, where the only other Queen of my bloodline lives, but she is too far away to hear my voice. The other Queens I know are enslaved, like your mother, or rule savage tribes in the wild, remote places of the world. As far as I know, you are the only free Solonkratsu Queen in all of Artana.”

Karalti bowed her head. “Yes, grandmother.”

“If we are to survive, you must free your kin from their chains,” Lahati continued. “And to do that, you must be able to command them as their Queen. My last act in this world will be to give you the bloodgift your mother could not. I did not have my body preserved like this out of vanity. I wanted it reserved in case it was needed by future generations of our kind. Take your true form, daughter. And you, Herald: stand back, or take your place between her wings.”

Karalti looked up to the ceiling and closed her eyes, concentrating. Her pale skin split with veins of opalescent light, which spread out to cover her as she smoothly shifted back into her natural draconic shape. Archemi’s dragons stood on their back feet, their tails stiffened for balance, their hand-like foreclaws held off the ground. When she was back to her full size, she crouched down and extended her wing to me. I climbed up half way, then used her wing claw to boost myself into a Jump, landing between her shoulders like a cricket.

Lahati’s body didn’t move, but as we watched, she began to bleed black smoke into the crystal that surrounded her. It billowed through the glass like ink, pouring from between her scales. More and more of it came, until the clear crystal turned dark... and then liquified. It pushed the limp body to the surface, exposing the arch of Lahati’s ribcage and the underside of one wing.

“The bloodgift is normally given by a mother to her queen daughter by mouth,” Lahati said, her voice coiling around my ears like a cool breeze. “The wyrmling bites her mother’s tongue, and the blood carries the Words of Power into her body. My tongue no longer has any blood in it, Karalti. Only the core of me still has any to give. You will need to pierce the great vein beneath my wing with your fangs and draw blood from there.”

As a normal human-person, I probably would’ve hesitated at the idea of drinking some five-thousand-year-old blood out of my dead grandma, but Karalti was a predator and a scavenger with instincts that were decidedly non-human. She showed no sign of revulsion as she nuzzled under Lahati’s stiff wing with the point of her snout. I felt her draw a deep breath before she snapped forward, bearing the immense crushing pressure of her jaws on the other dragon’s skin. The ancient queen’s scales popped under her teeth, bending, and then snapping.

“This is not the only gift I give you, my daughter,” the spectral voice breathed. “To you and your Bonded, the chosen of my true mate, I bequeath all the treasures of my tomb and the Solonkratsu who are your ancestors. You may take the mana that lies in the caves all around my resting place. You may take the gold and aurum and other treasures from this place, and from the Hall of Heroes that lies under Kri’vauun, a great necropolis to the south of here. The warriors who fell in these ancient wars have long since served their time in the Caul of Souls and moved on. They have no more need of their grave goods. The remaining wealth of Hava Sahasi is yours, and I wish for you both to use it and enrich the