“No. Nope.” Layla coughed as she managed to roll to her side and push up from the cold ground now, though she could only make it to a seat in the dirt. “Like I said, you put him away in a place of power made by the last of the ancient Vittrians. A place anyone else just thought was a natural cavern in the Thin Ways – but you had been to their realm, and knew they’d made it. The last of the Old Dragons created it to heal themselves when they migrated here to the Twilight Realm after their war in Vittria. But after they were gone, it was forgotten… until you found it.”
“Yes.” Hunter spoke as he watched her now, his achingly perfect face frowning with confusion. “But Nimir was dead. I preserved his body in a crystal sarcophagus for centuries before I found that place. Though it was made by the Old Dragons, it resonated with our earth’s energy – and I knew it had the ability to keep Nimir’s dead flesh from disintegrating, rather than the Vittrian location where my living army only had their natural lives extended. But even the crystal forest in Vittria was never able to resurrect someone already dead; so I left Nimir, searching for other answers. How is it that a cavern in the Twilight Realm could accomplish something the power in Vittria could not?”
“Ancient magic plus new places yield interesting new surprises, I guess.” Layla spoke as she finally managed to push all the way to standing and not fall over, though her vision blacked out before she got it back. “We’re not like the ancients, Hunter, even though you’ve tried to be. And the Twilight Realm or even the human world is not their realm – the resonances different. You’re powerful, but whatever tore Vittria apart is more powerful than you or I will ever be. We could Bind a hundred thousand Royal Dragon Binds… and never approach the kind of energy it takes to tear apart an entire world.”
“I only wanted to prevent that kind of destruction, Layla.” Hunter spoke softly now as he touched Nimir’s sarcophagus. “I only wanted to create a better world for all of us… to live in peace.”
“War never begets peace, Hunter. Don’t you know that by now?” Layla spoke, finally feeling her heartbeat recover as her breath found some depth. Somewhere far within, her drakaina’s power stirred at last, though she was still almost entirely spent. “Subjugating everyone under a single point of dominance only creates rebellion.”
“But that is how a Bind works, Layla.” Hunter glanced at her now, his perfect face confused once more as if she still didn’t understand what their magic was. “In any Bind, there must be a single point of focus for the magic to channel through – one pinnacle member to direct the Bound energies of all the rest. It is a pyramidal structure, with one dominant member right at the very top controlling it all. Or else, all is chaos.”
“That’s not true, Hunter.” Layla spoke back levelly now, watching him as her heart flooded open with her own truth that she had found with all her Bound men this past year. “The love which creates a Bind was never meant to be controlled by a single member. Love is a two-way street – or a multi-way street, in the case of a Bind. I’m not the pinnacle of all my Bound men. Sometimes Adrian’s the pinnacle, then Dusk, then Reginald, etcetera. Sometimes we all are, simultaneously. Becausewe all love each other– and we all receive that love back without any one of us dominating it.”
“I could never trust anyone enough to wield the power I possess, Layla,” Hunter spoke softly now, an edge creeping back into his voice as his dawn-bright eyes flashed. “Or to wield the Binds I create. They are powerful; and wielding that kind of power is my responsibility as their master. Controlling it so it is used effectively.”
“Then I feel sad for you.” Layla spoke back, unafraid now as she felt the signatures of her Bound drakes brighten inside her, reviving from Nadia’s healing somewhere nearby. “Because dominating the people Bound to you is not love, Hunter. That’s Binding someone into a contract where you get to be the master and they are the slave. True love is a Bind where partners trust each other to do what is best for everyone – to lead when anyone’s heart or power fails. I’m sure if Nimir was awake right now, he’d tell you that. Or Nadia.”
“Then wake him for me, Layla.” Hunter spoke dangerously now as his dawn-bright eyes held hers. “Wake my Nimir so he can tell me what a fool I’ve been… and I’ll accept it.”
“You know that’s not how this goes, Orrin.” A smooth alto voice came from nearby now as a woman approached them through the early dawn mist. Inside the vast canyon, Nadia walked to them, beautiful and strong in her human form with her creamy caramel-dark skin as she stared Hunter down with her intense golden eyes. “Even if Nimir could wake from his restorative slumber right now, he doesn’t understand the depths of what you’ve done through the ages. He knew you were mad when you killed him, but he doesn’t know what I know about you. He might pardon you for slaying him, but it would be meaningless as a pardon for the crimes of your long and brutal life. Your conscience would not be free. And no amount of acceptance from anyone will ever make it so. Only you can pardon yourself for the life you’ve led. The rest of us can only ensure you don’t hurt anyone else, ever again.”
As she spoke, Nadia made a swirling gesture with one hand – and the dense mist around the canyon’s wide enclave swirled away, flooding up over its high walls and showing what had been hidden. There beneath the rising light, Layla saw her four Bind-mates standing strong in their Dragon-forms around the canyon’s perimeter – and Adrian with them. As Adrian roared, thundering his presence back into the Bind now as if he’d kept himself hidden on purpose from Hunter’s knowledge, Nadia suddenly thrust a hand up to the sky and one down to the earth – as all of Layla’s drakes thrust their power both upward and down with her. Together, they flooded an every-power magic far up above the canyon, thundering it beneath their feet also.
Creating a shimmering dome of pure ether all around them.
“What is this?!” Hunter snarled at Nadia now as he glanced around the dome, which extended to every wall of the canyon. As Layla felt that shimmering barrier come to fullness, she also felt how deeply it had drained her drakes to do it – all of their energies exhausted and still flickering inside Layla despite Nadia’s healing. They were in bad shape, Layla knew as she felt exhaustion swamping her also from her game of chase with Hunter. But still, her heart glowed as her drakaina roared with glee to see all her mates still standing.
Even if they hadn’t bested Hunter yet.
“It’s an etheric barrier, Orrin.” Nadia spoke levelly now, watching him as she held a wary stance, power boiling off her as if she was ready to shift at any moment. “Nothing portals out, and nothing portals in. I’ve ensured with my magic that this barrier will not fall until either you do, or myself, Layla, and all her men do. You can’t leave here without killing all of us. And we can’t leave until you die. This is the crucible. And the battle you and I’ve needed to have – without armies now – is finally upon us.”
“What have you done?!” Hunter stared incredulously at Nadia as his face and form flickered through hundreds of people at once. Layla watched him swipe a hand through the air to create a portal, and fail. Quickly, he tried again, and then a third time as Layla watched his incredulity blossom into a horrified rage as he stared at Nadia. “What have you done, woman!?” He shouted at her now, unhinged as his face and body shifted insanely in a searing wave of light. “Don’t you know I want you and Nimir and I to be together?!”
“I’ve told you a hundred times that I’ll never be with you again.” Nadia spoke softly now as she watched him back, compassionate but stern. “Maybe now you’ll believe me.”
It was then that Hunter screamed. More than a roar of rage, more than a cry of agony, this was a scream that held all of his utterly tortured insanity as his body suddenly shifted up fast into his massive, world-devouring dawn drake once more. Obliterating madness was in his eyes, as Layla felt him lose the mind of the man, absorbed into the beast. As he flared his seven-layer wings, whipping his long armored tail and bristling with serrated dawnfire plates and spines of armor all down his body, Nadia flared up into her Dragon also.
Thunder smote the air as Hunter and Nadia’s battle began, terrifying storms manifesting inside the dome above their heads. Too exhausted to shift, Layla was caught under her own meager protective dome as sheet-lighting struck down, Hunter flashing forward and roaring out an every-magic fire all over Layla and Nadia from his breath. But Nadia was fast, heaving up a massive crystal wall as she darted back, trapping Layla in one taloned grip as she took Layla with her. Sidewinding fast to Layla’s drakes, Nadia deposited Layla in the middle of their protective coils and whirled, snarling at them all.
Stay here! Save your strength for when I fall!
Layla could not gainsay her as she was coiled into a ball of protection with all her drakes. Though she was still in human form, she, Adrian, and the rest of her men heaved power through their Bind now, to erect an every-magic dome all around themselves as Hunter and Nadia fought. Layla could feel deep inside her bones how tired her Bind were – they weren’t going to be doing any fighting soon. But Nadia was still fresh.
And Layla trembled with elation and fear now to see truly ancient Dragons fight.
A seething desert-funnel of wrath and glory, Nadia manifested every-magic power in a masterful control over the ether as she fought, hammering Hunter again and again as he defended and roared, then hammered her back with the same, both still trapped beneath the shimmering dome. But as they battled and roared, struck and bit, Layla began to feel an alarming phenomenon happen all around the canyon. As bones were crushed underfoot and Dragon-bodies slammed against the canyon’s bone-embedded walls, Nadia’s and Hunter’s roars smiting the ancient Dragon bone-yard, Layla felt something wake. It was like a trickle at first, a restlessness all around as slumbering Dragon-spirits trapped in the canyon began to awaken. But soon it was a river, and then it was a torrent.
As Layla felt a rip tide grow – swirling the air all around them with furious power.
That power seethed all through the cosmos now, as Layla pulled closer into her men’s protective coils – her drakes gazing around with alarmed hisses as they also felt the ancient Dragon-spirits in the canyon become disturbed by the battle. Layla suddenly understood that the whispers of power she’d experienced before in this place were only the faintest echoes of those who were here, bound to their bones by their own desire and dreaming for all eternity. But they were coming fully awake now as Nadia and Hunter’s battle slammed concussions through the walls, exploding entire sections of petrified bones and thundering a tremendous wave of unrestful dead out into the air with their disrespect. As ancient Dragon-spirits awoke all around in a whirling zephyr of power now, Layla saw one rise up high inside the ether.
Snarling and ferocious – and utterly pissed off.
Who dares disturb this place?!
The Dragon spirit in the ether before her was so strong that Layla could almost see it with her waking eyes as it stared her down through the universe. Enormous and utterly white, it was lithe like a Desert Dragon and finned like a Siren, with enormous spines and fractal-lightning scales like a Storm Dragon, and feathers in a crest like a Phoenix. As it stirred the etheric universe with its gargantuan talons, Layla saw it manifest ice-fire, water-plasma,nullax, and everything in between.
And as it stared her down, demanding an answer from those who disturbed its ancient rest, Layla knew she was looking at one of the Old Dragons of Vittria.
