Chapter Thirteen

Khoeli Réalta

Oh, here comes the black. I don’t like that. I’m so cold. Hakara is colder. The shadow has passed, but his shadow is here. Why am I here? I’m supposed to be in the caves… no, the sky, or wait, I’m not right anymore. The green one. Her scales are kind of pretty. The shadow’s shadow has come. The shadow’s shadow. What about his shadow? Does he have one? The shadow’s shadow’s shadow. That’s funny. Aaaoh, my head aches. Worse now. The shadow’s shadow is back, and my scales have gone.

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Kasmar woke with a jolt and rubbed his forehead. Something felt different inside his head like a thick fog had just lifted off of his thoughts and cleaned out all the crannies of his brain.

“Eridanus, Hakara…” he whispered. His head throbbed, but not as badly as it had earlier. And… the incessant mutters of run, run, the shadows are coming had faded too. He blew out a breath of relief.

“Hello…?” asked a wary voice to his left. He jumped slightly. “Yes?” he said cautiously.

“Oh good, you’re awake. Why were you talking about Eridanus? She’s just recently vanished from Mount Naga, and maybe you have anything to do with it?”

“Eridanus… um. Yes. This sounds corny. I think… I’m her older brother?”

That did it. The green dragon looked ready to faint. She sat down with her talons to her head. “You’re her stolen clutch mate?” she asked with a slight hiccup in her voice.

“Kinda,” he agreed. There were three others besides me. Hakara… Hakara turned to Shadowwalker. Itim is badly hurt, and I don’t know whether he’s alive or dead. I escaped before I could see what happened to our youngest sister. Her name is Talong, and she’s my favorite. She was really sweet.”

His new friend’s eyes looked full of stars. “Eridanus has four siblings?” she queried. He shrugged. “Four, maybe three since Itim was badly hurt, and maybe just two if Talong is dead. And you might not want to count Hakara because lately she’s been moderately evil.”

“How so?” the green dragon asked. Kasmar winced. Images flashed through his head: Hakara’s pretty snout twisted into a snarl, black talons shredding black scales, screaming SolWings twisted into knots on the ground, burns to disfigure their snouts. A muscular EarthWing clutching mangled wings, and a FreezeWing crying over two dead dragonets.

“She… almost killed Itim,” he rasped, rubbing his eyes. “And Talong’s favorite servant, and two dragonets, and some CelestialWings, and Sintev’s least favorite cousin. And almost a part of the group that kidnapped Eridanus. But they didn’t let her go.”

“WHAT?” the green dragon roared, surging upwards. “THAT IS KITTS AND NEVIS! THAT IS HORRIBLE!”

This went on for a while.