Perhaps it was simply chance that led me to the right place, or perhaps it was some impossible connection that had been forged between us. Regardless, when I scrambled up a jumble of boulders to gain a better view, one of the rocks shifted beneath my feet. Unable to catch myself, I tumbled down into a dim hollow below.
He was slumped against a stone, exactly as he had lain two thousand years ago while drawing his last breaths. I think I would have known it was him no matter what. The bones were yellow and brittle with time, and many were broken and splintered. However, just looking at them I knew they had belonged in life to a man tall and proud in bearing. Any last doubts were shattered by the ivory ring that still circled his arm.
Strangely, I felt as if I had just come upon an old friend after long years of parting. Perhaps, in a way, I had. Separated as we were by the millennia, somehow our lives-our fates-had become tangled together. My hand shook as I reached out and slipped the armband, his gift to Ulanya, from the old bone it encircled.
“Forgive me,” I murmured. And I knew that I was indeed forgiven.
For a long moment, I gazed at the intricately carved circle in my hands. Then, one last time, I used my magic to see through another’s eyes.
*****
He stood upon the shore of the lake. The tribe had gathered before him, their mute faces troubled. One stepped forward, a massive man with coppery hair. He spoke, his voice a perilous rumble. “You have brought death upon us, Skyleth.”
Skyleth shook his head fiercely. “No, Tevarrek. I’ve brought hope.” He held Ilinana out before him. The tiny child gazed silently at the other man, her round face calm.
“There is no hope in that abomination,” Tevarrek snarled. He thrust an accusing finger at the ivory ring around Skyleth’s arm. “First you steal our most sacred treasure. Then you give the gift to one who should never have received it in order to make this . . . this thing.” Disgustedly, he waved a hand at Ilinana. “Now, with her help, you have destroyed the Barrier. It is only a matter of time until we are discovered. We must flee, though where we can go now, I do not know. Wherever it is, be sure you will not be coming with us.”
“I don’t care about that.” Skyleth took an urgent step forward. “Just take Ilinana with you. That’s all I ask.”
Rage colored Tevarrek’s cheeks. “Never! She is not one of us.”
“Yes she is!” Skyleth implored. “Look at her eyes!”
Tevarrek did not even glance at the child. “It is my decision, and I say she will not come.” He started to turn away.
“Then I challenge you.”
A gasp rose from the gathered people. Before Tevarrek could reply, Skyleth set the child on the ground and spread his arms. He thrust his head back and let out a fierce cry that echoed off the mountains. Tevarrek spun back around, staring in fury. A spasm rippled through Skyleth’s body. His muscles writhed beneath his skin, bulging impossibly, tearing his clothes to shreds. With strange speed his body grew, and as it did, it began to change, shifting into a new form. All at once the man Skyleth was gone. In his place, a great silver form leaped upward into the sky, spreading vast metallic wings, cocking a horned head back on a sinuous neck to let out a trumpeting cry.
A silver dragon.
Exhilaration filled Skyleth as his wings pumped, lifting him higher and higher above the lake. He reveled in the feeling of air against his shining scales. It had been five centuries since he had donned this, his true form. Not since the last Dragon War had he known the joy of flight. At the end of the War, the one mortals called “Huma” had banished all dragons from the land with his shining, magical lance. At least, so the legends of the mortals told. But a few of them had escaped the lance by assuming human form, and they had come to this place, to hide from a world where dragonkind no longer belonged. Now that hiding was over.