“He did kill the man.” Nadia spoke soberly, and Layla felt no lie in her deep sadness. “It was his first kill, though far from his last. But the unfortunate problem of Orrin’s malleable magic and many faces is that he also has a very malleable memory. He continuously creates new memories for himself that match what he wishes to believe – rather than face memories as they really happened. I cannot tell you how many times we argued in our endless wars, about the way he swore events had happened versus the way I knew they did. He used his false memories to demonize me over the millennia. For a time, I was so broken in my heart I nearly believed him, though I eventually discovered my strength.”
“In the human world, creating false memories to break your enemies like that is calledgaslighting.” Layla pondered quietly.
“A good term for it,” Nadia smiled sadly, “but in Orrin’s case, he actually believed his self-protective lies. Orrin had already begun to believe his innocence, that he’d not killed the man. But he acquiesced to going to the sage in the mountains, and after only a brief time there enduring horrors, he was so broken he didn’t know anymore what was truth versus falsehood. When Nimir came to find him, the sage had already warped him into not knowing us. Orrin slew Nimir, and only after I arrived did he realize what he’d done. He launched into attacking me, utterly mad in his grief. Nothing I said could stop him as he came at me. For he believed I was trying to kill him for killing Nimir… and he has confused truth and lies ever since.”
“You barely escaped that battle.” Layla knew, taking in Nadia’s glowing caramel-dark skin but seeing no trace of old scars upon it.
“As did he.” She nodded. “I was two hundred years his elder and an accomplished warrior of the tribe; he was wrathful in his madness, but had not my skills. We damaged each other to a stalemate, then flew away when we could suffer no more. I did not return to my tribe, for my heart was broken… instead flying all the way here from Nubia, and finding this abandoned place.”
“A long flight,” Heathren spoke quietly, “all the way to Jordan from southern Egypt.”
“Made longer still,” Nadia spoke knowingly, “by my heavy heart and ruined body trying to ride the desert winds. It was then that Orrin and I became strangers. When he began to hunt me, I at first did not believe it, shocked that he would still consider me his enemy. But he began to amass Royal Dragon Binds and turn them against me, and so I did the same, seeking to protect myself. We grew armies, and over time those armies clashed and many lives were lost. He would not reconcile with me, believing I had been in on the trick that sent him to his demise. He sought to annihilate me – and nearly did many times – until I was so broken and tired of the game that I went to a place of power in the desert near here… and wept my heart out until an Ascendant heard me.”
“The Ascendant you mated with, who gave you a child.” Layla knew, seeing a vision of the tall blue-eyed man she’d encountered in the veranda-realm. “Hunter asserted he was some kind of god of the Otherworld.”
“He was no god,” Nadia eyed Layla calmly, “only an Ascendant of such ancient light and bliss that he seemed like one. When I cried my heart out in that place of power, praying with every fiber of my being for an end to this madness between Orrin and I, I came to stillness. The ability to feel the ether was granted me then – and a tall, blue-eyed Ascendant came through. He healed me in my misery; gave me the vastness of his love for many nights as my body held its stillness here. And thus, he found my deepest wish, the deepest desire of my heart… and granted it to me.”
“Your wish – to create a child that could bring Hunter down, or restore Nimir.” Layla spoke.
“No.” Nadia returned quietly, staring at Layla. “The child was the product of our time together, but my wish that the Ascendant granted was simply to restore the peace Orrin had lost. This was my deepest heart’s desire, Layla. I didn’t care if I lived or died at that point; one day was as miserable as the next. I simply wished for it to end. But even deeper than that was my love still for Orrin, hoping he could someday find resolution. The Ascendant said to me,All deepest heart’s desires shall be fulfilled; and the bloodline of your youngest, the Golden Dragon Bind, shall make it so.I had no offspring – until the Ascendant’s seed began growing within me. And have had no other child since.”
“Wow. That’s not the prophecy Hunter implied.” Layla blinked, Nadia’s prophecy from the Ascendant ringing true to her ears as it seemed to hum with loving power through the room.
“After I came out of trance, I went to Orrin.” Nadia nodded. “I told him what had happened, about what the Ascendant said, and Orrin became very quiet. He then told me he would hunt down any child of mine unto the ends of the earth… because he had twisted the prophecy in his mind to believe that by killing my offspring he would gain peace – in world dominance. I was horrified and fled, and when I discovered I was pregnant later, I kept it a deep secret and retired here to have my child. I was able to obscure this place from Orrin’s sight by then. For many years, my son and I lived happy with only a trusted few to guard us. And then one night as my son traveled to visit a beloved of his, an Egyptian Crystal Dragon girl, Orrin took the visage of someone I knew and entered the caravan. He slew my son… but not before my son had impregnated his beloved drakaina. She escaped, and Orrin has been tracing my bloodline ever since… trying to take them or kill them.”
“Do I have your bloodline through my father?” Layla glanced to Ruslan. “Or Mimi?”
“Mimi and I both held Nadia’s blood.” Ruslan spoke with a kind smile. “We were both part of the Golden Dragon bloodline.”
“The what?” Layla asked, frowning more as she looked back to Nadia.
“When my son was born, he was a golden youth.” Nadia smiled fondly, though ancient sadness lingered in her. “Golden in coloring, pure gold in his Dragon-scales, and golden in his magic. Few Dragons of my bloodline have been born with that color since, but the line has become nicknamed the Golden Dragon bloodline.”
“And my lovers carry your bloodline also, don’t they?” Layla asked now, thinking about Nadia’s side of the story. “It’s why Hunter has come after them too, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Nadia nodded, folding her hands in her lap. “We watch those who carry my bloodline from afar, seeing if their Bind-magics ever develop so we can invite them here to be safe from Orrin. But as with your men, Orrin meddles in their lives, trying to push their latent abilities before my people make contact. Some die; some go mad. Some remain resilient through the terrors, and it is five of those you have drawn to you, Layla. But because my people made a pact to not invite anyone here to the Hidden City who does not yet display Bind-magic, many are lost to us by Orrin before their power opens. It is a sadness I carry in my heart daily. But the pact stands – to protect those who are already here.”
“So why does Hunter believe a Golden Dragon Bind resurrecting Nimir and restoring your trio will help him unite the world under all Binds’ domination?” Layla asked, curious about that point.
“I know not.” Nadia shrugged, though her gesture said much. “That is not in line with what the Ascendant told me. I can only surmise that Orrin twisted the Ascendant’s prophecy in his mind to display what he wants – what he thinks will bring him peace.”
“World domination through your trio.” Layla lifted an eyebrow, settling back on her couch. “And he needs me to get him there, by resurrecting Nimir.”
“Essentially.” Nadia lifted an eyebrow back. “But though some part of me will always love Orrin, I would never return to him, Layla. I think deep down, some part of him knows his plan is flawed. And so he rages, causing destruction in the name of universal peace. A terrible game that you, unfortunately, have become his primary chess-piece in.”
“I resurrected one of my men recently.” Layla spoke, thinking about how she’d thrust Fury’s power back inside him two weeks ago at Deep Harbor, and his dead body had returned to life.
“I know.” Nadia lifted her eyebrow with a deeper look now. “We have people watching you, Layla, and one was there at the Siren court. But to resurrect someone dead ten minutes and stillwith his bodyavailableversus resurrecting someone tens of thousands of years gone with nothing but dust left to him… is a very different thing.”
“But I’m sure it made Hunter’s interest in me ratchet up ten notches.” Layla snorted, not surprised that Nadia had been keeping tabs on her, especially if she’d been watching Ruslan for so long before inviting him to the Hidden City.
“Yes.” Leaning forward, Nadia’s look was intense as she weighed Layla. “What you do not know, Layla, is that you are among the top five strongest Binds I have ever seen. Two sit here in this room with you, and one is lost to us forever, thanks to Orrin’s games. The fourth is Orrin himself, and the fifth is you. And while you’ve seen only your own powers and have nothing to compare them to, trust me when I say they are precisely what Orrin is searching for. You are a pinnacle achievement of Royal Dragon Bind power; growing by the day. I have no doubt you will eclipse my and your father’s power soon… and even be able to dance with Orrin’s before long.”
“Dance and win?” Layla asked, digesting the matron’s words.
“Time will tell.” She spoke back cryptically. Gazing around those assembled, she patted a knee as if she’d come to a decision. Looking back to Layla, she said. “I sense that you have seen the Ascendant I once spoke to. What did he say to you?”
“He honored me for arriving, and told me about the waystation.” Layla spoke honestly. “He told me briefly of your wish… and then told me it wouldsoon come to pass.”
