17
Alone in his room, Maddor opened his hand to study his father’s dragonstone.
His father.
That knowledge pierced him like a lightning bolt. He still wasn’t sure how to handle it. All this time, he’d thought himself abandoned. Unloved. Had imagined a total bastard who’d screwed his mother and then left him to die.
Then Morgen had concocted a much more sinister tale of a bastard who’d rejected him, then killed his mother. In his mind, his unknown father had taken on an even more horrific persona.
Now he knew the face of the dragon who’d created him.
And a whole different story. One he’d never dared dream existed.
Not a bastard after all, if Falcyn’s lies were to be believed.
Part of him didn’t care. None of it mattered, and most likely every word out of his mouth had been a lie.
Either way, it damn sure didn’t change his past.
Yet…
I have a father who’s alive.
And a son.
He tried to get a handle on the moment, but none would come. Worse was the knowledge that he held a vital part of his father in his hand. A vital part of the world itself.
With this, he could destroy him.
Much like Excalibur, the dragonstone was able to take life and to give it. The power of it emanated and vibrated through his hand. Through his whole body.
This was rare, primal power. The kind that could take out Morgen and the whole of her Circle.
Forever.
With this, he could rule not only Camelot and Avalon, but the entire world.
All worlds.
And it was now under his control alone.I could rule everything and everyone.
“What you doing, dragon-man?”
He jumped at the singsongy accent of the Charonte demon he thought he’d left behind with his father. How the hell had she gotten into his room?
“Who let you in here?”
Shrugging, she approached him as if he were nothing to be concerned about. A foolish thing, since…
Well, he couldn’t really kill her. He wasn’t sure what, if anything, could kill her species. Those damned things were terribly hearty.
“Don’t nobody be telling the Siminoexcepting for her akri, and you not Akri. You cute like Akri, but only Akri is Akri. No other exceptions are accepted by the Simi. Excepting for Akri-Styxx and then only sometimes… and maybe Akri-Bas. And sometimes Akra-Kat and Akri-Lexie.”
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“Then gimme what you took and the Simi will leave.” She held her arm out with her palm open and tilted toward him in a very childlike gesture.
She was so honest and trusting. He couldn’t imagine ever being like that. His life had never leant itself to such.
