INFERNAL - 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐲𝐬 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟖 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫

EIGHT

"What have you done!"

Again, her mother's vehemence startled her, leaving her confused and angry.

"I did what you wanted. I invoked the Allocai, and I have chosen a suitable mate." How could her mother be angry at this? Wasn't it what she wanted?

Liquid rock dripped from between her mother's lips. "You did not choose a mate, you chose a suitor!"

What was the difference?

"The difference is that it still leaves us vulnerable!" Her mother began to pace, her tail lashing as she stalked back and forth across the space in front of Ndete. "Okmok is a cunning adversary. He will use this to enlist more to his aid. Not only does the Pendragon have no heir, but his daughter has chosen the Pence of the Northern Reaches! The colony farthest from our own, and closest to those... those mortalis creatures!" She whirled on Ndete. "And you would go there!"

Fury turned her eyes into twin suns.

Was this what had her so worked up? Not that she'd chosen, or even who, but where they were from?

"You think you are clever," her mother hissed, "but you do not understand how things truly are."

"Oh, I think I do." Ndete felt her own anger rising. "Or at least I'm beginning to."

"Okmok cannot be allowed the chance to strengthen his grasp."

Ndete wondered if her mother had even heard her.

"He has the taste of power on his lips, and one chance in his clutches. He cannot be allowed to steal our legacy. Our destiny."

A dry laugh bubbled up in her throat as she gazed upon the woman who had raised her. She shook her head slowly. "You are not who I thought you were."

Her mother leaned close, golden eyes burning. Smoke from her mouth rolled over Ndete, reminding her of nothing so much as Okmok when he was trying to intimidate her into giving in to his will.

"I don't know how you convinced your father to agree to this, but I will change his mind. This will not happen."

She turned and stormed away, leaving only the smoke and echo of her words in her wake. Ndete was amazed at the relative calm that filled her. Normally she would be shaking after such an intense encounter with her mother, her innards jumping with anger and tension, but a kind of peace had settled over her. She might not understand all of the pieces of the puzzle that was their life, but the overall picture was starting to come into focus.

Okmok would do anything to put his own progeny on the throne, no matter the cost, and her mother would do anything to keep her own there instead.

Meanwhile, dragons were dying, and no one was doing anything to stop it. No one but the humans.

If her mother didn't like that Ndete was going to the Northern Reaches, she would absolutely hate the rest of the plan—if she knew about it. Yes, Ndete was going there to have time to get to know Fayal, but there was more at stake than romance and lineage. If someone didn't find a way to stop the spread of the illness that was killing the dragons, there would be none left to fight over the dais.

The raised rock would be empty.

Ndete was not about to let that happen. Pina had not died for nothing. He would have a legacy, and this would be it. His death would save the rest of his kind. Ndete would make sure of it.

"Ndete?"

She startled at the low voice.

"Fayal?"

His eyes glowed in the darkness as he came into the shallow cavern. "Are you all right? I saw Rishiri leave. She didn't seem... pleased."

"Hah!" A burst of flame erupted from her lips. She quickly drew it back in, embarrassed by her lack of control. "No, my mother is not at all pleased."

Fayal's eyes darkened.

"It is not you she takes issue with," Ndete tried to explain. "It's that she feels her hold on the throne isn't strong enough with me gone so far."

"Ah."

"That... and that I will be so close to the reservations."

He nodded, but the muscles around his jaw tightened. "Many still fear the humans."

"Why?" The question burst from her lips before she could stop it. "They already had their chance, and they lost. They were defeated. So few lived that the reservations we gave them were nearly empty. What is there to fear?"

"You truly do not know?"

"No! I do not! They are not tigers, with claws and sharp teeth. They cannot fly, or breathe flame. They have no magic. They are small. Their flesh is weak."

"But their will is strong," Fayal interjected. "They do not have great strength, but they do have reason. Can the tiger make tools to cut his meat? Can it build carts to carry heavy loads up off the ground?"

His words sent a shiver up Ndete's spine.

"Can the tiger make weapons that fire death across great distances? That kill without ever coming near their prey?" His voice hushed, yet every word pierced her. "That destroy entire regions in the span of a breath?"

"They can do these things?" The hoarse whisper sounded unfamiliar in her ears.

How had the dragons ever won the war against such creatures? Okmok was a devious, clever devil, yet even he could not dream up something so monstrous.

"The humans are capable of great damage, but also of incredible beauty. They use their hands to create images of the world around them. The stones of their village are like pieces of the universe captured on a breath and held there so that they can see it and enjoy it over and over again."

Ndete's heart pounded. Her eyes widened as she tried to envision it.

Death and beauty. The humans were like the Infernal flames. Beautiful to behold, but lethal in their destruction.

For the first time, Ndete understood why her people feared these small, magicless creatures. They were not impotes. They were the opposite. For all their fragile, diminutive forms they wielded force through their thoughts and by their very will.

"Any other creatures would have died out by now," Fayal added. He shook his head as he looked at her. "You should see them, Ndete. Instead of dying, they are thriving. The reservations that were once half empty now overflow, spilling out onto the plains where they plant fields and build structures. They teach their young so that their memories will not be lost, the same as we do. And Ndete..." he waited until she looked back into his eyes, drawn in by the intensity shining out from them. "They have music."

Music? How could the humans have music? Ndete had only heard music from the living wonders, the ones with the most magic – the sky, the trees and the waters. They, in their timeless might had music that echoed on the breeze. Even the tall reeds could only sigh, content not to sing, but only to add their breathless exhalations to the sound that the living wonders made.

"They make instruments." Fayal's voice was barely a whisper, yet she could hear the awe that filled it. "They build them with wood, shape them with their hands and use their fingers to coax sounds from them, blending them together like strands from the wicker tree. When they play them... it's as if the entire universe stops to listen."

Ndete tried to breathe, but the air was stuck in her lungs, squeezed by an unseen hand. What were these creatures that they had no magic of their own, yet could capture the most incredible magic the universe had to offer and wield it like a flame?

"You will see," Fayal whispered. "I will show you."

Another shiver worked through her at the thought. Soon she would see them for herself. Not just dragons shifted to look like them, but the real creatures themselves.

The humans.

Ndete had waited her entire life to meet them.