When Dragons Rage

71

Will really got no sleep. When they reached Dranae’s family holdings, a number of dracomorphs guided them to guest chambers that were located off a central antechamber. To everyone’s great surprise, they found Princess Alexia waiting there for them. Crow shouldered past Will and swept her up into his arms, hugging her tightly. Her arms went round his shoulders and she hung on as he spun her around. He couldn’t hear what they were saying to each other, but the smiles told him it must have been good.

The rest of them all turned away, letting their gear slip from shoulders. Will wanted to pepper the princess with questions about how she’d gotten there, but a quick look from Resolute kept him quiet. He grabbed his stuff up and carried it to one of the doorways off the antechamber.

By the time he returned, Crow had released his hold on the princess, though he still had his arm slid around her back. She smiled broadly, greeting everyone and even letting Qwc settle onto her right shoulder. Quickly enough she told them about the battle before Nawal and how she had come to join Kerrigan at Vael.

Will clapped his hands. “Princess, that was nothing compared to what Dranae did. He killed another dragon, just took a big bite out of him. You see, we were…”

Erlestoke rested a hand on Will’s shoulder. “There will be time for that story later, Will. I think we all need some rest.”

“No, I’m fine, really.”

Resolute cleared his throat. “Will, we all need to go lie down for a bit and collect ourselves.”

“Oh, right.” Will nodded, finally comprehending. “Okay, well, I’m just going to go to that room over there. If anyone wants to hear the story or anything, that’s where I’ll be.”

Alexia nodded. “Sleep well, Will. It warms my heart to see you again.”

“Mine, too, Princess.” He wandered to his room and sighed. Everything had been scaled to dracomorphs, so to get into the bed, Will had to climb up the foot, then launch himself onto it. He landed in a thick down mattress that almost swallowed him.

Will lay there in the big bed and suddenly felt very alone. The look in Alexia’s eyes when she saw Crow was the same look he remembered from Sayce’s eyes. I wish Sayce had come with her, too.

That realization surprised him. Growing up as he had in the Dim, love was something that happened only in songs. He’d seen a lot of lust in his time—his mother had made her money on her back. The liftskirt trade was a staple of the Dim, but certainly couldn’t be mistaken for love. And families—which he didn’t really know, other than by observation—often seemed to be together because it was easier to survive that way than if they were apart. Marcus and Fabia certainly had that sort of relationship.

In songs, of course, love was something of burning intensity. It was fated; recognized instantly. What he felt for Sayce hadn’t been fated or recognized instantly. He’d begun, slowly, to enjoy her company. And when he was saying good-bye to her—even with the reservations he’d expressed to Alexia—he really didn’t want to say good-bye.

When he did get to sleep, he dreamed of her. He saw her and Peri in the forests of Muroso, hunting gibberers. They were driving the enemy before them and out of Muroso. As the two of them watched the Aurolani troops flee, he awoke smiling.

Will dragged himself out of bed and pulled on his clothes. He left his coat off, as he didn’t feel that chilly in Vael. In some ways the heart of the mountain felt like home to him and he began to explore. He didn’t get far, though, before a dracomorph found him and agreed to conduct him to Dravothrak.

Dravothrak lay resting in a large, domed chamber. He opened a blue eye and his head came up. “You do not look rested.”

“I couldn’t sleep much.” Will shrugged. “I was wondering if you could…”

“I believe I can. While I rested here I sifted through impressions and I believe I have found him—a piece of him anyway.” Dravothrak motioned him closer. “Will Norrington, meet your father, Bosleigh Norrington.”

The dragon’s breath blew soft and cold, congealing into a translucent shape. Edges took on hints of white and slowly filled in, revealing a young man a bit taller than Will, but not much heavier. He had an open face and slight smile. He paced, looking through Will, moving toward him, with one hand on his chin and the other behind his back.

Will stepped away from the ghost’s line of march and heard his father’s voice. “Yes, yes, those lines will do. It will be a grand poem. I’ll call it ‘How to Vex a Temeryx.’

Will laughed aloud. “Again. I want to hear it again.”

Dravothrak smiled. “That might be beyond my control. I can try, but what I would have to do to the magick could make him remain with you. Right now I can dismiss him, but I might not be able to later. Do you want to risk that?”

“Sure, what could it hurt?” The thief smiled, his eyes sparkling as he watched his father move. A happiness showed on his face, beneath the mask he wore. Will did read a hint of arrogance there; still, this was his father, and not the thing Chytrine had turned him into.

Dravothrak blew again. The figure froze, then began pacing once more. Leigh Norrington repeated the poem, then began the cycle all over. Will concentrated and by the fourth recitation had the whole thing memorized. By the fifth he was beginning to tire of it, so he waved his hand in front of his father’s ghost.

“Enough, already.”

The ghost walked toward him and Will’s hand passed straight through him. A chill ran through the thief, then the ghost vanished. “What happened?”

Dravothrak laughed. “It’s your blood. He’s there, behind you. No matter how fast you turn around, you won’t see him, but he’s there. Nothing to worry about. He should fade in a day or two. Until then…”

“I’m haunted; I know.” Will shrugged and closed his eyes. He brought his father’s face to mind and heard his voice again. He could see himself in those features and catch elements of his voice in his father’s. Connections began to form.

Prior to that, he had been the Norrington because he had been told he was. Oracle told him, and used magick to prove it. Chytrine trying to kill him, Crow and Resolute finding him, Sayce seeking him out, even Scrainwood giving him a mask, all of those things were external signs that he was the Norrington. And Will had accepted that mantle because it was a responsibility he could shoulder.

Until that moment, however, he’d never truly believed he was the Norrington. He was willing to play the part, and he’d done it well. Seeing his father, though, hearing his voice, confirmed the Norrington Prophecy. Not only did he accept the job, but he now knew he was meant to have it. He was the fulfillment of the prophecy.

He opened his eyes and felt cold for a moment, then looked at Dravothrak. “Thank you.”

“It was nothing.”

“No, it was everything.” Will smiled and laid his hand on one of Dravothrak’s toes. “I am the Norrington. I will redeem Vorquellyn and I’ll kill the scourge of the north.”

“Yes, the prophecy.” Dravothrak’s voice hummed with power, sending vibrations through Will’s chest.

The thief smiled. “It sounds much more powerful when you say it.”

“The power comes not from me, but from the prophecy itself, and the people it has drawn to its fulfillment.”

Will nodded. “Well, I was pulled out of a burning building as a child, and the raid on Wruona would be our victory at sea. I guess I just have to lead folks north to the ice, to defeat Chytrine, and then we can redeem Vorquellyn.”

The dragon’s head rose, towering over Will. “The work of a lifetime. Even a dragon’s lifetime.” Dravothrak looked past him, then hissed.

Will turned and a dracomorph stood there, with his head bent forward. He hissed back at Dravothrak, but in a very polite manner. A returning hiss brought the dracomorph upright again and he waited.

Dravothrak spoke from behind him. “Will, please accompany this small one to the Congress Chamber. The others will join you there, including Kerrigan. I must travel another route and take my place in the Congress.”

Will craned his neck back. “What will we be doing?”

“Answer questions as they are asked. Just answer truthfully and all will go well. Chytrine has few friends in the Congress, and even they suspect her motives. If we succeed, you will have allies in your war against her.”

“They’ll be welcome.” Will nodded. “Thank you again.”

“It was my pleasure, Wilburforce Norrington.”

Will wandered from the chamber in the wake of the dracomorph but did not wonder at Dravothrak’s full use of his name. He did want to turn and ask the shade following him if he had chosen such a horrid name for him, but he wasn’t sure he’d get an answer. Given that his father had gotten him on a whore during a drunken binge in Alcida, he wasn’t sure his father had known he’d been conceived, much less had anything to do with naming him.

Besides, his father then and his father now weren’t the same person as the shade. The shade was happy and free. None of the tragedy that had shaped his life showed at all. The poem he recited was fun and playful, and Will imagined him that way. That’s what I got from him. That’s the foundation that makes me the Norrington.

The dracomorph led him to a semicircular shelf of stone that jutted out into a lake of fire. Will walked up to the edge and saw a line of runes ringing it. He couldn’t read them, but he could feel power humming off them. He looked past them and at the way the heat from the fiery lake made images shift. Will breathed out as Dranae had at the cavern entrance and saw his breath mist briefly in the invisible barrier holding the heat back.

He smiled, then looked past the edge and deeper into the lake. There, at various points—on tall, flat rocks, tall towers, and niches carved in the far walls—he saw dragons. Lots of dragons, and some of them were looking at him. In the distance, he saw Dravothrak settle into place, but he held back from waving.

Qwc zipped past him and, for a heartbeat, Will thought he was going to sail through the barrier. “Qwc, be careful!”

The Spritha stopped short of the wall, then turned. “Hot, hot, Qwc knows. Very hot.”

“Yeah, really, really hot.” Will winked at him, then turned and smiled as the others joined him. “I was talking to Dravothrak. As soon as Kerrigan gets here, we’re supposed to answer questions when they are asked of us. If we do things right, we might get help against Chytrine.”

Crow stared at him and paled. “Will, what is that thing behind you?”

“You should recognize him. He’s my father. Dravothrak made him appear. He’ll go away soon, but I heard him recite his poem ‘How to Vex a Temeryx.’”

The older man shivered, then shook his head and chuckled. “That was going to be Leigh’s most magnificent poem. I’d love to hear you recite it, Will.”

“Sure, tonight, after all this is over. It’ll be fun.” Will let his voice sink. “Sorry if seeing him was unsettling. I just needed to prove that I am the Norrington.”

Alexia raised an eyebrow. “Was that ever in doubt, really?”

Will shrugged. “Never hurts to have more proof?”

Crow patted him on the shoulder. “None of us has ever doubted it, Will. You’ve proved it over and over again.” He looked past Will and at the dragons. “And here you’ll have a chance to prove it yet one more time.”