“You’re dead, aren’t you?” I ask, as I swallow hard and get my shit back together enough to speak.
“Yes.” He smiles at me, kind but sad. “I am long dead and gone—but you are not. And if you are here, just as my mate Aesa foresaw before she perished at Konigslac… then the Usurper has come again. Now… all must fight to the bitter end.”
“You were a Bloodmate of Aesa’s?” I raise my eyebrows now, astonished as I hear his words. “You died in the Blood and Bone War, didn’t you?”
“I was the last of our Bloodbond to perish. Somehow, I lived on when all the rest died—even my Bloodwalker.” Though he smiles at me, I see the ancient grief in his eyes. “Aesa’s last directions to me were clear, however. I was tasked with saving her Silver Rings after the rest of us were dead. For there would be one who would need them in the future, she knew, though Aesa could not see the drakaina’s face in her visions. Thus have I done, with my last dying breath. Sealing our precious rings here, before entombing myself in the vaults. Waiting… for you.”
As this ancient kingly Blood Dragon speaks, I finally understand what he’s telling me. That somehow, the ring I wear upon my hand was notmade by my Ancestor Hedda like I thought. Rather, it was made by her sister, Aesa, whose Truthstone I also wear.
As the ancient king glances down at it now, flaring upon my breast.
“Aesa has already affirmed you and your destiny, Bloodwalker,” he says quietly now as he watches that stone. “If she has, then I shall, too. For if you wear her Truthstone, then you are the one who has come to destroy the Usurper. You will need these rings and the information I have for you. To bring down the creature… and send it to its ultimate death, at last.”
As a deep breath takes me, I lift my hand in reverence, placing it to my chest. Maryse’s ring—Aesa’s, I know now—touches her Truthstone upon my breast, and both resonate with a sudden wildfire, sparking in little runnels of silver-gold sunlight, which radiate from my chest.
The ancient kingly drake sees it. An answering wildfire sparks in his golden eyes, as if with a lust for battle. Something hardens in the ancient warrior then, as he glances back up at me.
Then opens his hands wide.
“Come, Bloodwalker, enter the Mirrors of Memory. And we shall speak of ancient things. Things you need to know, to best the Black Dragon, at last.”
As his hands on each mirror reach wide, encompassing the entire three-paneled spread, a massive gust of magic sweeps the vaults. I’m sweptinsidethe triptych mirrors, then.
As the four rings of Aesa clink into my palm.
Coming with me.
19
REMEMBER
Iarrive in a nowhere-space, as the silver mirrors suck me in. From a corridor underground, I come into a strange emptiness, where the light is everywhere around me but also nowhere, all at once. Wan, it’s not like natural daylight but a blue-white mist that surrounds me now. Out of that mist steps the kingly drake, wearing the ornate black battle-leathers I saw on him before.
He beckons for me to turn and glance behind me. I do, and have the strangest sensation as I see my body still standing in the corridor. Because I’m lookingoutfrominsidethe mirrors now; beyond, I see myself standing in trance, chin lifted as my dragon-aura seethes around me.
Aesa’s silver rings clenched in my fist.
They resonate with the one I’m wearing, and Aesa’s Truthstone upon my chest; a searing vibration takes me and I glance down now, opening my hand to see those four silver rings still in my fist. Aesa’s ring is upon my finger, as well. Her Truthstone flares all-white, here in this space.
Luminous.
“Where are we?” I ask the ancient kingly drake now as I turn back tohim. He watches me with a mystical patience, as he sees me finally understand what has happened.
That I am not inside this nowhere-realm, only my auric body is, like when I send myself up into the Void of Ancestors.
“This is a place of memory only,” he says calmly now, though he does not explain. “I imbued my memories here, when I placed the rings in the box, to be found later. Where my memories went, there went a part of my soul, as well. To abide here until my task is done.”
“Who are you?” I ask him then, curious as I watch him.
“My name is Örn Magnussen,” he says, confirming my theory that he is related to Bjorn. “I was King of the Dragons of Blood and Bone, during the Wars. A terrible time, in which I failed my people. Disastrously.”
“You were a Bloodmate of Aesa,” I mention again, digging for deeper specifics, whatever he’ll tell me.
“I was her First Bloodmate, yes.” He nods, watching me with his vivid, golden eyes. “Much as I feel you have also taken a strong Magnussen drake as your First, so did she. For our ancient bloodline has ever held not just strength but also vast surprises in battle. As you will learn. Right now, we must speak of the two sisters, Aesa and Hedda Anderlen. The strongest Bloodwalkers of their time, they were magnificent in battle, righteous of mind, and brilliant in their magic. But one fell to the challenges of our time, utterly dark… as the other tried desperately to stop it.”
“I’m listening,” I tell this ancient, ghostly King now, rapt with attention as I clench Aesa’s silver rings in my fist.
“By now, you know that a terrible war raged in our time, between the Blood Sages and the Bone Mages.” King Örn Magnussen continues in our nowhere-space, his vivid eyes piercing me as the mists swirl all around us. “Kin were lost from families on both sides; Aesa and Hedda were no strangers to loss, their powerful family torn apart when the Blood Sages and Bone Mages went to war.”
