Forest of Ruin (Age of Legends 3)

Still nothing.

"He is deeply unconscious," Edwyn said. "We have not witnessed so much as a flutter of movement since he first passed out." He said a few words in another language to the woman, and she nodded, confirming that.

"He is as well as he can be, child," Edwyn said. "Now, if you'll return with me to the other cave, I will answer your questions and tell you what we have planned. Then you may come back here and sit with him."

"It's real then," Ashyn said, running her fingers over the eye socket of the dragon skull. It protruded from the wall, as if mounted there, but upon closer inspection, it was indeed embedded in the stone itself.

"It would be difficult to manufacture such a thing," Edwyn said with a dry laugh. "Although, to be honest, people have tried. We've been summoned to verify remains of dragons, only to discover they're bones from an ancient cave bear or even parts carved from soapstone. But something of that scale, I assure you, is impossible to fake."

He was right. The eye socket alone was as big as her head, and she had to reach up to touch it. The teeth were each larger than her handspan. Some were missing, and she could feel wear on the intact ones, less sharp after a lifetime of ripping apart prey. She shuddered at the thought. Moria had told her about their horrific fight with the thunder hawk, and this creature would be larger still. One chomp of its great jaws . . . Ashyn might not have her sister's imagination, but she could still picture a man sliding down that massive gullet in a single swallow.

"How old is it?" she asked.

"Ages."

Ashyn smiled. "Moria will be disappointed. They were selling dragon eggs in the city, and I could tell she was tempted. She might know they're simply pretty rocks, but still . . . the possibility . . ."

"Yes," he said, returning her smile. "That possibility keeps many a shady merchant in business. They are very pretty rocks, though. Nothing like real dragon eggs."

"There are real--?" She stopped and nodded. "Fossilized."

"You've heard of such a thing?"

"The process, yes. I grew up in the Wastes. After the volcanos erupted, the cooling lava left many petrified remains. Traders used to come and collect stone-hardened beasts to sell as monsters. Never dragon eggs, though. The stones were too dull for that. I suppose real fossilized eggs would look dull."

"They do, though if broken open, they are a thing of beauty. Every color, like diamonds refracting the light. Not that we would ever break an egg, but sometimes they are discovered already shattered."

"Who discovers them?"

He didn't answer, instead walking to the skull. "Your sister is called the Keeper. Ironic, because that is her true heritage--yours and hers both. Our family's heritage. The keepers of dragons." He walked to the skull and touched the snout. "Keepers of memories now and keepers of bones. Or so most believe. But the truth, child? The truth is that we keep so much more."

He ran his finger over one front fang. "You spoke earlier of your powers. Yes, you have powers over spirits, and in the empire, where spirits are the subject of religion, that is what they focus on. It is the manifestation of your connection to the imperial goddess. But there are other faces to the goddess. Sometimes she is not even a goddess but a god. A supreme power that men and women recognize as their faith tells them to." He looked over at her. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"I . . . I think so. Many people worship a deity, and you believe it is the same one, with different names and faces."

A broad smile. "You are indeed clever, child. That is a concept rarely understood by people twice your age."

"Perhaps it's not so much a matter of understanding as of accepting."

"Clever and wise. So the empire has its goddess, who rules the second world. She is also associated with dragons, particularly under the rule of the Tatsu clan."

"Because the dragon is their totem, so it benefits the emperor to strengthen that connection."

"Do you know where that connection comes from?" He did not wait for her to answer. "From the North. Our goddess is the queen of dragons. And in our world, twin girls born blessed of the goddess have a special gift, beyond the ability to hear the dead."

He took her hand then, his fingers warm and surprisingly strong as he moved her to stand with him in front of the gaping jaws, both gazing up in awe at the beast before them. Then, still holding her hand, Edwyn leaned down and whispered in her ear, "They have the power to wake dragons."

FOUR

Moria woke with her hands bound and her head pounding. Her first thought was of the dungeon, of the cold and the dark and the terror, and she was certain she was back there, and she tried to jump upright and--

A whinny. She barely had time to realize she'd been lying over a horse like a sack of rice before she was flying clear, hearing a shout of "Moria!" as she struck the ground hard enough to jolt her out of consciousness. She came to lying against someone's chest, an arm holding her up, a voice saying, "Moria? Are you all right?" Green eyes over hers. Dark braids brushing her face. And again, another flash of treacherous memory, and she was back in the Wastes, and Gavril was there, and they had just fought the thunder hawk and . . .

Then the rest tumbled back like rocks down a cliffside, bashing her, each blow bringing fresh pain, and she slammed her fists into Gavril's stomach and scrambled off his lap.

"You cannot run, Keeper," he said.

"No, truly?" She lifted her bound hands. "That much is obvious. I'm no fool, whatever you may think of my intelligence."