Mother came along when I went to find Kira a Rift, then insisted I consume a few as well. I went through three of the things before I felt full, passing out every time. It still bothered Mother every time it happened, but at least she had the oddity of my half-human soul to point at.
“Great Lady,” Kira asked when Mother had presented that theory, “why is it that I do not pass out?”
“I cannot say, little healer,” she replied in much the same way she’d sometimes spoken to Herald. “I must assume for now that it is due to some stress from the combination of draconic and human. But with nothing to compare to, it is impossible to know for certain.”
I didn’t care too much. I was curious, sure, but I was so used to it that it didn’t bother me. I was a tiny bit jealous that Kira and my siblings could drain a whole Rift without keeling over, but only a tiny bit.
Not much at all.
It didn’t take Herald any time at all to get ready. She’d started when I went up to try my wing, and had been done for ages by the time I returned with a freshly recharged and much perkier Kira. She was waiting above ground, speaking with Mother, and turned to me when we landed. Beside her were two bags: a light pack, and a heavy duty sack which I knew from the smell contained most of the gold coins, jewellery, and loose precious stones that we’d found. The silver would have to go by mule later.
When Herald opened her mouth, though, it was Instinct who spoke. “Good!” she said, and Herald took the two bags and approached me briskly. “Let us go now. I want to return to both my own body and our hoard.”
“I agree,” Herald said in her own voice. “And not just because of… you know. I really think that she is right that you both should get to your hoard as soon as possible. Not that I do not love having Instinct with me, but I cannot imagine it is pleasant to not be able to move more than your own shadow.”
“Will you go now?” Kira asked, looking between Herald, Mother, and me. “Shall I tell the others not to expect you for some time?”
“I suppose I should,” I replied. I gave my wings a stretch, and it was like I’d barely used them at all. Greater Fortitude really was a wonderful thing to have. “Nah, yeah! Head on down, and tell them. And tell them not to worry if we’re not back tomorrow; I don’t know how long I might sleep while my wing finishes healing, or how long I’ll need to determine if I can do anything for Instinct or not. Listen to Mak. If I’m not terrified, I’m probably fine.”
“As you say, mistress,” she said, with a shallow bow. It was odd and a little uncomfortable to have Kira call me mistress; she usually only did that when she wanted to guilt me into agreeing to something. But Mother was right there beside us, so I figured she was cranking up the deference for her sake.
“Truly, do not worry, little healer,” Mother rumbled. “I shall be with them. No harm shall come to them. And I expect little Sandstorm will wish to hear more stories, so Indomitable shall surely be watching over you.”
“Yes, Great Lady,” Kira said, bowing lower to her than she had to me. It was hard to say if she believed Mother as unconditionally as she made it sound, or if she was just agreeing for the sake of not insulting her. They had apparently gotten along pretty well during all their trips back and forth between Rifts and the palace, so perhaps Kira truly did trust her as much as she seemed to. It wouldn’t be the first time; Herald had taken a liking to Mother after I’d left them alone together, too.
Somehow, the question of whether Mother would accompany us had never come up. I’d just taken it for granted, and clearly so had she. It was the only thing that made sense; my mountain was less than thirty miles from Karakan, no distance at all if Behold Her had the eyes to spot us in the air. And while my wing could carry me, there was no way that I could do any kind of fancy flying; I doubted my ability to hit or maintain a hundred miles per hour, much less try to escape or evade a fully grown dragon determined to kill me. No, I’d known deep down that Mother would have never allowed me to go without her, and I wouldn’t have wanted to; I wasn’t quite desperate enough yet to risk dying again. Especially not when I had Herald with me.
As Kira headed down and we readied to take off, Mother told us, “I expect you do not need the reminder, but I shall give it nonetheless: Herald is not to… ride you. Not while we may reasonably expect to be seen. Once this place slips beneath the horizon I may be persuaded to allow it; before then, I forbid it.”
I did need the reminder. I’d been excited to just have Herald hop on and then take off. I looked between her and the two bags rather doubtfully, not sure how we’d do this safely, but Herald wasn’t concerned at all.
“Do not worry!” she told me cheerfully. “I have thought of that. Look.” She held up the larger bag, showing me what they’d done. “We have sewn straps to the bag with the treasure. I can wear the pack on my chest and the bag below that, and have my arms free to hold onto you as you hold me. I will be as safe as ever.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, still looking at it all warily. It wasn’t that I actually expected any problems; she was strong, and I was stronger. I’d wrap my arms around her, keep her legs in place with my knees, and everything would be fine. Probably. It was just… I couldn’t turn that probably into a definitely, and this was Herald. Not to mention the hundreds of dragons’ worth of treasure!
“I am sure,” she replied, full of gentle confidence. “You would never let anything happen to me. I may be a little less comfortable than I would be on your back, that is all.”
“Right. All right, if you’re sure,” I agreed. If I couldn’t have confidence of my own, I could damn well borrow hers! “Bags on, then. Let’s get going!”
* * *
We ended up flying like that the whole way. Three hours wasn’t such a long time when I never tired of holding my passenger tight, and when we could talk to each other without any interference from the wind—even if said passenger dozed off now and then. I was, she excused herself, just too damn comfortably warm.
It was a comfortable, relaxing flight. Well, relaxing other than my constant fear of the bag of treasure somehow ripping open or tearing loose. Not that there was much risk of that, since I had to keep it somewhat slow, not wanting to push my healing wing too hard over such a long distance. I also flew low. At below a thousand feet any threat would have to be fairly close, on a dragon scale, to see me. For anyone farther away to see me they’d have to be pretty high up, and then I’d blend into the trees. Mother, though, kept herself high above us, staying just below the clouds and vigilant for any threats. Whether that might be Behold Her, Unquenchable or Quake having decided to turn traitor, or anyone or anything else didn’t matter. Mother may be undecided as to whether I was her daughter or not, but the soul inside Herald most certainly was. Any creature foolish enough to threaten us would very briefly suffer the consequences.
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Herald was asleep when we approached my mountain and grumbled adorably when I set her down on the ledge, doing my very best to keep somewhat stationary as I did. After I’d set down, mother latched her enormous feet onto the edge, her claws sinking into the stone as though it were wood.
“Go now, and do what you can,” she commanded. “When the time comes to leave, do not take off without me. Come to this place and wait, both of you, and I shall come for you.”
A small, contrarian part of me wanted to argue, but I silenced it with extreme prejudice. Taking to the air on my own would accomplish exactly two things: annoying Mother, and putting myself in unnecessary danger. Instead I promised to do as she said, thanked her for the escort, and asked if she could, perhaps, find it in her heart to find something for me to eat when I woke up. “Probably best to wait until tomorrow,” I added after she agreed. “I quite like it when the meat’s been resting for a bit, but Herald’s stomach doesn’t agree.”
“Please do not remind me,” Herald muttered, making a disgusted face. Which prompted Instinct to take over her mouth and say, “One more reason for me to be back in my own body! I have not known the joy of good meat for weeks!”
Then we descended. We all grew steadily more excited as we got deeper into the cavern and closer to my lair, and Herald’s shadow danced in the faint light of the glow slime. When we reached the crevice to the Pit of Despair, where Instinct had slept away the centuries, it was all I could do not to run ahead. Well, that and the fact that I had to Shift every so often to squeeze through some of the narrower passages; I didn’t want to risk hurting my wing, after all.
Instead of bounding forward, I stopped.
“Herald,” I said, “you remember where the House treasury is, yeah?”
“Of course,” she replied, nodding toward the crevice.
“Take about a hundred dragons’ worth of coins and put them in the lockbox, alright? I know there’s more treasure back in Malyon, but there’s no guarantee we’ll get that home anytime soon. I want the House to benefit from this whole mess. You’ve all earned that and more.”
Herald looked as though she might argue; my influence over her drove her to enrich me first, to the cost of everyone else, even herself. But with my wish made clear her own greedy little heart soon got the upper hand, and she did as I’d asked.
“I took mostly jewellery,” she said. “Hope that is alright. Precious stones are tricky to judge the value of, and I thought the jewellery would be likely to be worth far more than its weight if we sell it.”
I nuzzled her hair, saying, “See, this is one of many reasons I need you. I would have said to leave the jewellery in the hoard so no one melts it down, but I’m pretty sure the hoard doesn’t care about the value of craftsmanship and rarity. Like you say: we’d only get its weight’s worth out of it. Good thinking!”
“I do have my moments,” she agreed with a grin.
We continued. We were close now, close enough that I was beginning to note the scents of gold and other lovely things drifting on the air, and when I realized that, I stopped holding back. I trotted as quickly as I could down the passages, Shifting through the narrow bits as needed and with Herald running along laughing behind me. I only slowed when we finally reached the bend where I had my nest, and then only to really savor the moment.
“Oh, it’s good to be back,” I whispered, looking at the mat of coins and little piles of treasures, all right where I’d left them. There was the box in which I’d found my first coins; there was Avjilan’s bow, which I sometimes wished that I could give back to him but which I couldn’t possibly part with peacefully. There were coins and bars and nuggets, plates and spoons and candlesticks, all kinds of things; mostly silver, sometimes gold, and very rarely copper or bronze or some other metal. All the treasures I’d collected that couldn’t walk on their own two feet were here, and it was altogether wonderful.
As the appreciative silence stretched, Herald reached up to stroke my neck. “Good to be back, indeed,” she whispered.
“It’s amazing,” I replied and started moving. “Come on. Let’s get in there!”
“Wait.” Herald’s hand slid along my side as she stayed where she was, and I stopped to look back at her. “Perhaps we should think about which order to do this in. Do we bring in the treasure immediately, or see if you can help Instinct first?”
“Why would we…” I began, then trailed off. And when Herald continued, her words echoed what had just occurred to me.
“What if you pass a Threshold, and something goes wrong?” she asked. “Even if I am right there beside you, with Instinct as close to her own body as she can possibly be without being inside of it, what if the Advancement does not work for her? What if it works only for her and not for you? By all accounts this is something completely new. We do not know how the magic of the Advancements will treat the two of you. Dare we risk it?”
I didn’t have time to answer—hell, Herald didn’t even have her mouth shut— before Instinct exclaimed, “No! No, we must not risk it! To miss an Advancement— no!”
“Okay!” I agreed quickly. “Okay, sure, yeah! We’ll wait with the treasure! Calm, girl!”
“Truly? I— we could not—”
Instinct rarely sounded nervous or pleading. When speaking to Mother, perhaps, but not to me. But I could see where her thoughts went. If I decided that I wanted to add the treasure we’d brought to my hoard, there was nothing either she or Herald could do but beg. Not that I would, but could Instinct be sure of that? Our relationship had been somewhat adversarial at times, at least until recently. For all she knew I might harbor some ill will.
I didn’t. I truly didn’t, and I needed to make her see that.
“Instinct,” I said, turning and lowering my head until it was level with Heralds. I looked into her golden eyes, willing myself to see beyond the sister I loved so much to the spirit trapped within her. “I don’t want to do anything that might hurt you, or the bond between us. I… well, I’ll be honest. I don’t know that I can honestly say that I love you. But I like you. I appreciate you. And I miss you. I want you home, all right? I’m not going to do anything to risk that.”
“She really would not,” Herald whispered, speaking to Instinct though she looked at me with so much tenderness. “Truly.”
Hey, let me… Conscience said inside me, pushing at my control. And while I never would have refused, I was too surprised to even consider doing so; I couldn’t remember the last time she’d asked to front. “Hey, Scaly,” she said a moment after taking over. “If she tries, I’ll give ‘er hell, yeah? You belong in here, where I can keep an eye on you.”
Then she relinquished control back to me, a wave of discomfort coming off her and bleeding into me. I mean it, she said. Not that I think you’d try.
Yeah, I know, I replied. Out loud I said, “Alright, Herald. Leave the packs here, somewhere they won’t get wet, and let’s head on in. We’ve been waiting too long for this as it is.”
Nothing mystical happened as we set foot on the carpet of coins, reaching the hoard proper. I hadn’t expected it to. It would have been nice if simply setting foot on the hoard had been enough to magically reset us somehow, knocking Instinct back inside me the way the cracked crystal deep below the palace grounds had knocked her out of me, but that would have been far too simple. Instead we’d just have to do it the hard way.
“Any chance you can sleep?” I asked Herald. “It’s early afternoon, and you got about an hour and a half all told on the way here.”
Herald just smiled and snuggled into me where I lay. “Do not worry about that,” she said. “Just let me get comfortable here, and I am sure I will be drifting off in a few moments. And if not, I have the lightstone and a romance to read.”
And so we settled in for an afternoon nap—of indeterminate length in my case, since I both intended to dreamwalk and would likely sleep until my wing was fully healed. I closed my eyes and just listened to Herald’s soft breathing for a time. Then there was a soft scuffling as she moved around a bit, and the faintest bit of deep red touched my eyes through my eyelids. I fell asleep to the sound of gently rustling paper, and the occasional suppressed giggle.
As I entered the dreamscape, one concern I’d had was immediately laid to rest. Finding Instinct was no problem; her soul blazed like a star, and clung to Herald about as securely as a windborne plastic bag stuck to a fence.
Well, that was one problem taken care of. With no effort on my part, too. Perfect. Now I just needed to figure out how the hell to bring her back home.
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