Walking untethered in an endless ocean of crystal, air, and darkness.
“We’re close.” Dusk spoke now as Layla felt them finally approach the place that thud had issued from. As Dusk nodded his chin at a spot towards the floor, Adrian acknowledged, taking them down into the roots of the columns. Moving between the monoliths, they rounded a pillar so large it was like moving around the edge of a skyscraper.
And then Layla saw where that odd vibration had come from.
With a gasp, she swirled a hand, walking quickly down her own winds now to the cavern’s floor as her men followed with a similar shock. There in a bed of small, flat pillars right at the roots of the crystal forest, a man lay. Tall and lean but well-built, his skin was a burnished ebony-gold, a luscious color that reminded Layla of her ancestor Nadia as she perused his naked form. His cheeks were elegantly high, his jaw sharp but beautiful, his ebony eyelashes long and thick. Long black dreadlocks created his pillow, sleek and ornamented with golden rings. As Layla came to his side, seeing how he lay with one arm thrown up beneath his head, he seemed like he was merely resting. As Layla took him in, she realized suddenly that he looked like an ancient Nubian Desert Dragon.
And with a shock, she knew who this was.
“Nimir.” She spoke in hushed awe as Adrian and Dusk arrived at her sides. “After Hunter killed Nimir… he brought the body here. To rest forever. I’m sure this is Nimir!”
“Layla, I don’t think this man’s dead.” Dusk spoke then, frowning down at the man on the crystal bed in the subtle light of the columns. As he spoke, they felt that deep thud concuss the air again – and Layla realized it was reverberating through the columns and focusing on this one spot, on the man before them. Reaching out, she laid a hand on the man’s sculpted chest.
And found he was warm.
“He’s alive.” She breathed, her eyes wide in astonishment. “If this really is Nimir, then somehow this place kept him alive after he did battle with Hunter.”
“Or Hunter really did kill him and somehow this place revived him.” Adrian spoke quietly now as he pressed two fingers to Nimir’s neck and the thud came all around them again. “His pulse is timed with the columns, Layla. I think we may be looking at some kind of ancient life-support machine that these columns create. If so, then this cavern really is a treasure, if it can sustain life. And if it could revive a Dragon who was dead… then it’s an even greater treasure.”
As they watched the man on the crystal bier with vast interest now, Layla felt the ether in the cavern swirl again, but not like a heartbeat this time; and as that energy flowed into Nimir, he inhaled a deep breath. Watching in awe, Layla set her hand upon his chest again, feeling life flow slowly through his body – and realizing something else odd. “Check this out – he’s not injured. He’s not got any wounds or scars, but in the fight I saw in Hunter’s memories, Nimir was badly wounded in dozens of places after their battle. He shifted down in death from his Dragon to human form… and stayed that way. Rent, cut to pieces, and very dead.”
“Hunter must have found this place after that battle, sometime in his last many thousands of years,” Dusk spoke quietly now as he stared at the man upon the bier. “He must have kept Nimir’s body in a crystal sarcophagus to prevent it breaking down, then found this place and brought him here, hoping this sacred cavern of the Old Dragons could revive him.”
“But even just few months ago, Hunter still wanted me to resurrect Nimir.” Layla wondered, smoothing her hand over Nimir’s sculpted chest. “He knew he had Nimir’s body preserved for me when I was ready… but I don’t think he knew Nimir hadalready been brought back to lifeby this place without me ever getting involved.”
“But is he really?” Dusk asked with a frown, gazing up at the crystal pillars now. “Nimir’s life-systems are timed to the pillars, Layla. Like a modern life-support machine, I think this place is keeping him alive. If we moved him… he might die again.”
“So he lives but he doesn’t.” Adrian mused thoughtfully, touching Nimir’s sleek black dreadlocks. “Hunter must still believe Nimir’s dead – this place must be able to block all resonance from Nimir’s living body to the outside world where Hunter could sense it, even through the ether.”
“And Nadia must not be able to feel him either, since she never mentioned it to me. She thought Nimir was dead, too.” Looking up, Layla glanced at Dusk now. “Dusk. Do you think you could mimic this resonance we’re feeling all around us? Do you think you could re-create the sound the ether makes and that these crystals are amplifying… and stabilize Nimir?”
“I could try,” Dusk frowned at her now. “But why? What are you thinking?”
“If you could re-create that frequency,” Layla mused, running her hand gently over Nimir’s sleek chest again, “then maybe we could create a crystal sarcophagus for him. Move him out of here… to a place of our choosing.”
“You want to hold Nimir hostage against Hunter.” Dusk breathed, his sapphire eyes widening.
“Not necessarily.” Layla spoke back now, thinking it through on the fly as she took in the man upon the crystal bier. “I don’t want a hostage – I want to heal him and see if we can get him to wake up. Because maybe he knows something that would help us fight Hunter; that would break his dominance over us, once and for all.”
“Another gift to us on the eve of battle, that could possibly help us break Hunter’s dominance against us.” Adrian spoke quietly now as he took Nimir in with a pensive frown, as if reading Layla’s mind from before. “Coincidence? Fate? Or Hunter’s ability to do the impossible working through all of us to some unforeseen end?”
“Any way you slice this pie, I’ll have some, Adrian.” Layla countered as she glanced to him. “When I got that call from Heathren about Luke and heard theirnullax-shield idea, I decided I don’t really care anymore where our Bind’s luck comes from. Maybe it’s ours, maybe it’s Hunter’s changing our magic; but the fact is that anytime I see one of those spontaneous gifts that could possibly help us – I’m diving into it now. Because we need all the luck we can get against Hunter. And we’ve gotten further towards taking him down than anyone else who has faced him in the past millennia – a pattern I intend to see through to the end.”
“And I’ll be right there with you. Supporting you.” Adrian spoke quietly now as he reached out and took her hand. “I hope you know that, Layla. I’m just trying to examine this thing from every angle, and see our potential blind spots before they come back to bite us.”
“I know.” Layla eased as she smiled back at him. “And I love you for that.”
Gazing down at the man upon the crystal bier, everyone was silent for a long moment. At last, Dusk drew a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s get into meditation, kiddos. And then we’ll see what we can do, to potentially get Nimir out of this place and into our hands.”
Gesturing to spots around the crystal bier, Dusk motioned Layla and Adrian to spread out until they formed a triangle around the unconscious man. As Dusk raised his hands and closed his eyes, Layla did the same, and she felt Adrian close his eyes also. Slipping into etheric trance was easy with the vast sound of the pillars flowing through this space. Within moments, Layla felt that enormous, slow resonance humming all through her bones, and it was a struggle to simply not vaporize back out to the etheric realm.
And be lost forever.
But then, she felt the bright energies of Rhennic, Fury, and Reginald steady her; adding their concentration to the group as they felt something important happening from far away. Layla’s two Sirens and her Storm Dragon weren’t present, and thus weren’t sinking into the etheric tones saturating the crystal forest and the air all around. As those three Bind-mates acted as anchors for Dusk, Adrian, and Layla to wade deeper into the sound of the universe, letting it flow all through them now, Layla let go. Suddenly, she felt like she was nothing but that sound any longer.
As she felt Adrian and Dusk do the same.
Slowly, she felt Dusk begin to gather that sound to himself; breathing it into his body and adding to the resonance in the crystal cave. He didn’t vibrate that sound into the air and through the crystals like he usually did, he simplywasit this time; his heart beating that sound and his lungs breathing it as every cell inside his body opened up to that resonance. As his body attuned to it, it passed that understanding through the Bind into Layla and Adrian; suddenly, their bodies were absorbing and amplifying that sound also, through their breath and heartbeats.
