Little Jonas broke free of The Unknown's grip and ran forwards. He displayed no fear, toddling towards a creature that could swallow him whole. He stopped in front of the great dragon's jaws and half-turned towards his mother as he pointed.
'Kaan!' he said.
'Yes, darling,' said Diera, walking forwards to join him.
The Raven hung back, watching the reunion from a respectful distance. Sha-Kaan moved his head slowly off the ground, speaking softly just above the boy's head.
'Hello, little man,' he said, voice so tender in a beast so large. 'You have grown. I had not expected to see you again. And I am sad that I must at this time.'
Jonas didn't respond verbally, instead reaching up to rub the horned scales at the front of Sha-Kaan's muzzle. The dragon turned his attention to Diera.
'Your son is beautiful,' he said, voice a bass rumble, his eyes a brilliant blue, shining with affection.
'Thank you,' she said. 'It is good to see you.'
'But the reason why breaks your heart.'
She nodded. Darrick saw her hands clench together.
'I don't understand why anything that happens on Balaia should affect my husband. He has earned the right to peace.'
Sha-Kaan sighed. 'I cannot argue against what you say. You married an exceptional man who is part of an exceptional group. And when the world is in trouble, it calls on such people and expects them to respond. It is the mark of their greatness that they choose to do so, though it is also your misfortune, is it not?'
'There must be someone else now.'
'You must listen to what I have to say. I think you will agree that there is not.'
Darrick saw her shoulders sag as she nodded her head and pulled Jonas to her. Sha-Kaan raised his head a little.
'Approach, all of you,' he said. T have no desire to shout.'
Hirad chuckled and led them forwards. 'Your whisper would carry clear across the Southern Ocean, Great Kaan.'
'It gladdens my heart to see you, Hirad Coldheart.'
'And you, Sha. You're looking well.'
'The air of Beshara and the streams of inter-dimensional space are kind to me.' Sha-Kaan shifted. 'How do you like my Klene?'
Hirad gave the chamber, where dragons came to rest and heal in inter-dimensional space, an appraising glance.
'It's a little plainer than your old one. Decorating not finished yet, or something?'
Darrick had to smile. Never in his most vivid dreams had he ever thought to witness a man debating wall coverings with a
120-foot-long dragon. Next to him, The Unknown had also seen the humour in the moment.
'Effectiveness over aesthetics. The shape of the chamber and those grooves in the walls are efficient channels for the healing streams.'
'Oh, right.'
Sha-Kaan rattled phlegm in his throat, the sound echoing in the chamber and startling Jonas who clutched his mother tight.
'But in the fullness of time, we will hang-the walls with tapestries, if it bothers you that much.'
'Not for me to say, Sha-Kaan,' said Hirad. 'I just have to be at one end so you can use this thing, I don't necessarily have to look at it.'
'I fear we are straying from the point,' said Sha-Kaan, a hint of irritation in his voice. He looked beyond Hirad to those grouped in front of him. 'I remember the days when I considered all humans except the Dragonene mages to be unworthy of the attention of dragons. Hirad Coldheart changed that assumption and you before me are examples of my folly.
'It makes it all the harder then to ask one more task of you. I am not surprised to see the elves represented by their best. You understand in a way humans do not the link between the living and the dead. Cleress, your presence honours me. Those who were Protectors, I am the happier to be able to gaze upon your faces. And The Raven. My friends. The fears that Hirad expressed to me are well founded. Our position is already desperate. Many will be involved in defence and attack; you will be the spearhead. And for that necessity, my heart is heavy with fear for you.'
'You're selling it well so far,' said Denser.
Sha-Kaan's head snapped round to regard the mage with slitted pupil narrowed.
'Would you rather I lied about the challenge ahead, frail human?' he asked. 'Would you rather begin your journey one-eyed?'
'Not at all,' said Denser. 'But you have to understand that for most of us we had no inkling of any problem until Hirad put to shore. I'm still getting round the shock of it.'
'Then let me explain what has happened.' Sha-Kaan breathed heavily, the air rushing over their heads, sour and sharp. 'Kaan birthings began a little more than two cycles ago, a little less than two years for you. It is a time when our efforts are focused solely on
our brood and when the paths of inter-dimensional space are closed to us because the resonance set up by the brood at birth upsets our directional sense. It is the time when the Vestare repair and improve the Klenes.
'But you will understand that it is a time when we are most at risk from attack. The brood has fought in the skies every day of the birthings and the damage we sustain can only be salved by the ministrations of the Vestare. The fight has left us weak but the enemy broods of the Naik and the Skoor have not been able to break us and for that we give thanks. Now we are building our strength again. Our young are strong and, like Jonas, they grow fast and are confident, unafraid.'
He paused, reflective. Darrick searched his face for expression but the mass of scales obscured anything but a tightening of the muscles around his eyes.
'Our joy has been tempered, though, by what we found when the Klenes were opened again and we tried to communicate with our Dragonene partners here on Balaia. Many were simply not there. And those that were, were in a state of such panic their minds were barely coherent. Worse, the Kaan have been attacked in their Klenes by the Arakhe, who are marauding in inter-dimensional space. They are strong and getting stronger and that only happens when they find a new home. That home is here.'
Sha-Kaan's last words hung in the air, resonant and laden with ruin. Darrick felt a chill in his body despite the heat of the chamber. He'd heard all this once already but first-hand from Sha-Kaan made it so appallingly close.
'So the demons have invaded Balaia?' said Denser.
'Yes,' replied Sha-Kaan. 'And they will enslave every man, woman and child in this dimension. Then they will bleed them dry of their souls and when the land is spent, they will move on. They must be stopped.'
'I still don't understand why this affects the dead,' said The Unknown.
'Balaia is a key dimension for the demons and you must understand their nature. They are nomadic. They exist outside the boundaries we understand, taking dimensions where they can to
increase their strength and, like I said, moving on when they are spent.
'But Balaia is different. They need it for the long term and that is why they have chosen enslavement rather than massacre. It marks a departure in their nature. A mode of organisation that is worrying to us all. Another reason they need Balaia is the links that both elves and Wesmen have with the spirit dimension. If they can break the will of either race, they believe they will have free access to the dead and all their myriad souls. I believe them to be right. As, I am sure, does Cleress. And the dead are under greater pressure than at any time in their fight against the Arakhe. From what the elves tell us, that much is clear. What do you say, Cleress?'
'It is a future I have seen, though it is uncertain,' said Cleress. 'There is still hope, therefore.'
'So why didn't they attack Calaius or the Wesmen directly?' asked Erienne.