The dome trembles; the silver mirror-stone swings, as the pinnacles that hold it aloft jangle. It shudders upon its invisible currents of air asBjorn flexes his fists and that powerful cyclone of blistering, bright gold fire goes whirling around him now, instead of Baldur.
As he closes his eyes, he swings his fists once, then twice, punching an invisible foe as he hits nothing but air. And then the rage in Bjorn swirls out.
Heaving into nothing as he gives a deep sigh.
Bjorn’s fire is gone; the rage clears from his aura, disappearing, as he finally conquers it. When he opens his eyes, they’re back to his regular human crimson-gold, rather than the blistering all-gold of his drake.
Baldur’s rage is gone, as Bjorn used his own vast fury to dissolve it. As my big First Drake just snuffs out all the insane, cosmic fury of my Fourth Drake like it was nothing, a stunned silence fills the hall.
Everyone gapes at Bjorn, most of all me, as my big First Drake flexes his shoulders, then rolls them, cracking his neck. Bjorn clenches his fists one last time, then shakes out his hands. As suddenly as our massive shit-storm of a fight got started in the underground library, it’s just gone.
Bjorn its peacemaker—in a way I never in a million years expected.
“What the…?” Ström is the first to speak, as he stares at Bjorn like my First Drake just grew six heads.
“How in seven hells…?” Mikkel steps around from behind Ström and Lærke now, to gape at Bjorn with the rest of us.
“You just took my dragon’s fury into yourself, then let it go, completely.How?” Baldur asks as he turns now, staring in shock at Bjorn as much as Mikkel. His rage gone, Baldur’s irises are back to their regular dark glacial blue, shimmering with white.
His rageful cosmos-fire no longer pouring through the hall.
“It just came to me. Seemed like the right thing,” Bjorn rumbles now in his classic stoicism—though his gold-red gaze is piercing as it fixes upon Baldur. “You, however, need to get your shit under control. Because I know the feel of unhinged fury, Berserker. You still have it… even if you’ve buried it under your self-imposed isolation and hermit-like ways for millennia.”
“Bjorn’s right.” I finally get command of myself and move forward, coming to Baldur. I gaze up into his eyes as I impress my point, because we seriously need to talk about everything that just happened with him right now, regardless of how Bjorn solved it. “We all know the feel of our deepest inner darkness, Baldur—Mikkel knows it far better than the rest of us, but Bjorn and I know it, too, as does Ström. And your own deepest darkness is rising in you now, ever since you were cursed by the Black Dragon. That heart-curse… it did something to you. And now your inner Blood Magic rage is rising again. Becoming unleashed, Berserk… maybe in a way it hasn’t been for centuries.”
“I thought I had it under control.” Baldur stares not at me but over my shoulder now, as if staring at the beast of his own Berserk drake, out in the Void. “I thought I had my inner rage figured out, eight hundred years ago…”
“Clearly not. Berserk fury like that isn’t easily avoided. Is it, wild man?” Mikkel says with his diabolical cunning now as he steps in, but remains at a safe distance with Lærke. His dark eyes shine, chartreuse and also copper now, as he stares Baldur down, goading him to rise once more into his most furious drake.
Because just like before, Mikkel’s hit the nail on the head with Baldur. We’re all seeing it now; that something deep inside Baldur truly iswild, in a way he’s hidden from not just us, but also himself.
I’m seeing now that it may have been the reason he isolated himself way out in the middle of nowhere for ages, someplace his wild beast could do no harm if it ever came out again.
Even as Baldur’s gaze pins viciously on Mikkel once more, however, a terrible red heat sparking in his eyes again, Bjorn clamps his hand back on Baldur’s shoulder, restraining him.
“Don’t,” Bjorn says, as he holds Baldur back. “He’s not worth it. We’re all trying to build our energy back up, not waste it. We have a bigger enemy to fight. So Mikkel can be an asshole when he pinpoints the truth. So what? Let it go.”
My eyebrows rise, my astonishment renewed as I hear these completely magnanimous words come out of Bjorn. Of us all, Bjorn has been maturing the most from being in this Bloodbond, however.
I feel how steady he is now, as he reminds this far older drake that there are fights, and there are fights. As a deep shiver rushes through Baldur, I feel him give up this battle. The war isn’t over, though, as he stares daggers at Mikkel and Mikkel returns it, eager.
The most cunning smile ever lifts Mikkel’s lips, my ruthless Third Drake ready to unleash his worst whenever Baldur wants it. Bjorn and I have finally got them separated, however, no longer about to throw down, at least not right now.
It’s something, as I finally feel a deep clench inside my chest unwind. Because though we haven’t solved whatever’s happening to Baldur from the Black Dragon, we’ve at least got someone who can stop it from getting badly out-of-hand, in a pinch.
It’s a situation that needs figuring out, though; fast, if we’re ever going to get our strength back and be able to battle the Black Dragon, not to mention the rest of our enemies wielding it.
And we’ll never get there if we can’t get Baldur’s calm back; as that thought fills me, I feel it dig into all my drakes, relentless.
Because though all our inner darknesses are liabilities in this bond, Baldur’s is a sudden bitch of a complication. And that complication is bad, as he looks at me and I feel the darkest part of myself seethe, recognizing his inner darkness right to my core.
Bjorn’s inner darkness holds blistering emotions and possessiveness, which makes his rage go black. His rage fuels him for battle, however, and even though it gets out of control sometimes, he doesn’t see his anger as something evil.
Ström’s inner darkness fills him with self-doubt and fear, devouring his bright passion. But even though Ström hates who he’s been in the past with his power, he knows he was coerced to do bad things with his magic, and that he’s also not inherently evil.
Mikkel’s inner darkness is bloodthirsty and cruel, from being born as his dragon. But even he knows he’s driven by his dragon’s instinct to be utterly ruthless and never look back. Though he struggles with whether he can ever be noble, even Mikkel knows he’s not truly evil, right when it comes down to it.
My inner darkness goes far down, however, deeper than all those things. I feel it resonate with Baldur’s now, as some terrible part of me understands him.
