That’s a question I asked Rhaskar too many times to count. I never understood when I was a child or even when I was coming of age, but I know the reason now. “I was a tool for him to hone, not family. My happiness mattered very little, and if he were to present me as his daughter, there’d have been questions because of the Fourth Edict.The Order is the wall against the storm. Every Priest pledges his loyalty to the Order above anything else, including his family, his fortune, and his own life.If he expected the other Priests to forsake family, then why should he be allowed to have one?”
Inni snorts and Azric snarls at the same time. Thinking about it now, I understand why they’d act like this. I was supposed to call him Father. We ate breakfast and dinner together every night. He made sure I had my own private tutor and sword master, yet publicly, he never let the world know I was anything more than a ward.
Most children would be furious, but I thought he’d saved my life, and the cost was some semblance of secrecy. It had made sense then, even if I hated it. “Until recently, I’d thought he’d taken me in when he shouldn’t have, according to all the rules of the Order. I know better now, but when I was a child…”
“I had respect for Rhaskar before, but now I do not.” Inni’s words are a rumbling warning as if he were here to hear them. “When I watched over orphaned younglings after we were attacked, they followed me everywhere. I showed them what it was to be a dragon. I did not train them and leave them alone. They came to meetings with the elders. They flew with me to experience the worlds we rested in, and they patrolled with me. They were my shadows, and that is what being a parent is. Anything else is…”
She pauses as if searching for the word, and Azric fills it in for her, “…irresponsible.”
The dragon nods her head slowly. “They would not know how to smile if they had not seen beauty even in our flight from the Hunters. They would be like Sidon before Vesper, and that should never happen again. A dragon is not just a creature of war. A dragon is creation and love and nurturing, and the young need to see everything that we are. I am sure that the same applies to humans.”
I turn to Azric. “And you, Prince of Bones? Did you experience all aspects of life? Did you shadow your mother and father?”
He nods slowly, and a darkness washes over his beautiful face. “I did when I was young, before I was taken. After I left, I had very little use for my parents.”
“Even then, you had me,” Inni says slowly, and it’s impossible to miss the emotion in her words. “And you have always been my shadow.”
“You’re not my parent. You’re my friend. It’s different.”
A ripple runs over Inni’s back at his response. “My soul is tied to yours, Azric Cyrus. We are much more than friends, and when you were young, I was as much a parent as Maeve and Cole. Probably more. Afriendwould not have followed you on the path your soul was destined for.”
He lets out a sigh. “Fine. You’re tied to my soul. Whatever the word for that is.” They’re quiet for a while, and I look over the side of the dragon as she glides through the still air.
I realize just how different my life is compared to what it would have been had I lived with my real parents. I’d have lived and died on a farm somewhere. I’d never have had the chance to change the world. I certainly wouldn’t be riding on the back of a dragon as it slowly circles Castle Lachlan.
“Do you think what we’re all doing matters at all?” I ask.
“It means everything,” Inni rumbles. “You said the Priests have an edict about being the wall against the storm, but the storm Rhaskar speaks of is nothing but the breeze before the hurricane. The humans do not stand a chance. The Fae will be nothing but a momentary obstacle. Even the Godforged will break before this storm. I have spent almost five thousand years on Nyth, and I love this place and its people. I do not know if we will win this fight, but I will face the Void if there’s any chance of saving it from destruction.”
Azric bows his head but says nothing. I take another look at the castle below us and see people walking on the ramparts. Then I see the other dragons on the roost, all of them lying down with their eyes turned upward, watching us.
Just a few months ago, I’d have been happy to hear that all magic was destroyed in Nyth. I’d have celebrated the news of all the dragons being killed, that the Godforged had been destroyed. But now I’ve met them. I’ve seen that Azric is a real person, and his goals aren’t to inflict cruelty on the world. I count Rurik and Erik as friends. Maybe Jorren and Isola are only acquaintances, but even they had patience for my humanity while training.
Elara is wonderful, and Darian… Darian was one of the best people I’ve ever met.
So, I ask the question I’ve never been brave enough to ask Azric or Inni. “You talk about wanting to save this world, so why do you and all the rest of the Godforged kill so many humans? Is it only the magical races you care about saving?”
Silence lingers in the air even as Inni beats her wings. Azric looks down at me and says, “I have grown to understand that I am the Champion of Death, and while I may kill hoping to save this world and its inhabitants, I am no savior. My troops require lives to keep fighting. When humans are born, they draw power from the Void, and when they die, they release it. When the Undying kill humans or other non-Godforged, they draw that power into themselves and use it to feed their powers. This war was necessary so that our soldiers were ready for what is coming, and those humans who diedwere necessary to fuel the war. I’m not happy about their sacrifices, but it was necessary, and I’d do it again.”
I stare at him. I have witnessed villages burned to the ground. I have seen the cold, unblinking stares of the gray dead after the Undying raided a border village. Men, women, and children. Infants still in the cradle.
“Your troops fought for almost fifty years before you were born. Why do they need to keep doing it?”
This time, it’s Inni that speaks. “Lysara commands it, and we cannot deny her.”
I meet Azric’s gaze. “Is that the way it is for all the champions? They only fight because their god commands it?”
He shrugs. “All the Godforged require the lives of humans and Fae in some way. The Corpsebinders need their bodies. The Chained need their blood to forge weapons and armor.
“Some champions are as tired of this war as I am. Others don’t mind the fighting and the slaughter. None of them care as much as you because we aren’t human. Does it bother you to eat beef? You raise them for a year and then slaughter them for food. We give most human villages ten or twenty years between raids, and outside of Sylvantia, we have very specific numbers that we’re allowed to take so we never deplete the stocks too much.”
I struggle to keep from straining against the shadows holding me against Inni’s back. “We are not cattle!”
Azric raises an eyebrow. “Aren’t you, though? We need to kill you to feed on the power inside you, just like you need to eat rabbits and venison and beef. You take life to survive every day.”
“But…!” Iargue, and Azric raises a hand, stopping me.
“I don’t want to keep fighting, Fiona. I never wanted to be the Prince of Bones, but we can’t run from our destinies. I already told you I’d do whatever it took to save Nyth, even if it’s the most terrible thing I can imagine. No one will ever call me a savior, but I’m doing whatever it takes to save everyone.”
