“You’ve been sent to kill me,” said Greatshadow, smoke rising from his jaws. His teeth looked like ash-covered logs glowing with internal fires.
“Yes,” said Infidel, still kneeling, her head bowed low. “But I’m not going to. I don’t wish to hurt you.”
“Yet you’ve brought the accursed Heart to my elemental realm. Merely looking upon it causes my soul to weaken. You must know the agony it brings me.”
Infidel shook her head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t personally bring the harpoon here, though I was told it could hurt you. I confess, however, I don’t really understand why.”
The ashen heap that was once the most feared dragon in the world turned his enormous head away, so that the Jagged Heart was no longer within his line of sight.
“It’s a part of her,” he sighed, his voice crackling like a campfire stirred by a breeze. “Long ago, before we dragons entangled our souls with the elements, we were mortal creatures. Like all beasts, the most important goal of our lives was to mate. Unlike other beasts, we dragons prided ourselves on the spiritual nature of our relationships. We weren’t mere animals, puppets of our instincts and lusts. We based our coupling on refined courtships that ensured that we were perfectly paired: mentally, spiritually, magically, and physically.”
“I was told that you and Hush were lovers?”
Greatshadow shook his ragged head as cinders fell from his eyes like dark tears. “More than lovers. Alone, we were incomplete beings; together, we were one perfect soul. Her cold balanced my heat. My wrathful nature was calmed by her grace, while my brash and sudden passions could stir her cool and logical heart. When we lay entangled together in our coupling, staring into one another’s eyes, there was no loneliness. We were a universe in total, beyond all cares. Or so I thought.” Greatshadow swallowed hard as the ground trembled beneath my feet.
Infidel cast a glance back at me. I studied her face for some clue as to why she hadn’t attacked. I longed for Relic’s telepathy. I didn’t know why she was taking this risk. And yet… and yet she gave me a slight nod, with her eyes locked on mine, and the message was plain. Trust me.
I nodded back, and waited.
Greatshadow’s voice was almost a whisper as he said. “Our universe was not so complete as I thought. There was… another. As I stared into the eyes of Hush, she dreamed she was looking into the eyes of Glorious, the dragon who was to become the elemental partner of the sun. My flames, it seems, were not enough for Hush. Her cold, logical heart judged that Glorious would be her perfect mate. So, she abandoned me, and flew to him, to profess her love.”
“I’m sorry,” said Infidel.
“What is there to be sorry for?” Greatshadow growled. “It proved a great stroke of good fortune, at least for those of us who were to become the primal dragons. Glorious rejected Hush; he was on the verge of merging his spirit with the sun, and had no time for such trivia as love.
“In her anger, Hush struck Glorious, killing his body, which freed his soul to fully merge with the sun. Such was the violence of Hush’s blow that fragments of solar material fell to earth.”
“The glorystones,” said Infidel.
Greatshadow nodded. “While I was not yet the dragon of fire, I studied all flame, and saw the blaze of the glorystones as they fell. I flew to investigate and found Hush standing over the mortal shell of Glorious. Hush tried to convince me that Glorious had attacked her, but my telepathy was superior, and I saw the truth. My rage was so great that I felt my soul burst into flame; I became the elemental embodiment of wrath. My first act upon wielding this power was to lash out at Hush for her betrayal. Even then, her mastery of cold helped protect her from my physical assault, but the emotional pain of that moment forever altered her. Understanding the source of my primal rage, her heart literally froze when she realized she had driven away the one dragon who had truly loved her. As her ice-bound heart shattered into a thousand sharp shards, the unfathomable chill that filled the vacant spot within her soul triggered Hush’s transformation into the primal dragon of cold.”
“I’m sorry you’ve felt such pain,” said Infidel.
Greatshadow let loose a low rumble that might have been a rueful chuckle. “We’ve become much greater beings as a result of her betrayal. Though I wonder, at times, if we aren’t also something less.”
He cast a baleful glare at the harpoon. “Just as everything I cherish eventually turns to ash, everything exposed to her cold heart will eventually wither and perish. Even I.”
“If I knew how, I would remove it from this place to stop it from hurting you,” said Infidel.
“I know,” said Greatshadow. “I see your thoughts so plainly. You have not come here with hatred in your heart.”
“No,” she said. “I set out on this quest to find comfort for my own broken heart, not because I held any animosity toward you.”
“You came to steal my treasure,” he said.
“Yes.”
“But you’ve decided you no longer want it.”
Infidel touched the band of hair on her finger.
“Gold and glorystones are wealth, not treasure. I can see that I was surrounded by genuine treasures all along. I just had to learn how to recognize them.”
“How sorrowful to find these truths only once you are in the realm of the dead,” Greatshadow said.
“But I’m not dead.” Infidel looked up to meet his gaze. “I arrived here by accident and I need to go back. You must possess the power to send me home. You have the ability to travel between the spiritual and physical worlds, or else Zetetic wouldn’t be so worried.”
“Traveling between the worlds comes at a cost,” said Greatshadow.
“Name the price,” she said. “Send us back and I promise that we’ll never bother you again. I promise to take the Jagged Heart as far away from you as possible, and I promise to fight anyone who even whispers of making an attempt to kill you.”
“You would kill my offspring? The one you call Relic?”
“Consider it done,” she said, snapping her fingers.
Greatshadow pondered for a long moment. “No. Tell the pathetic broken-wing that I shall have my revenge at the time and place of my choosing. The thought of the sleepless nights the young one shall endure pleases me. A swift death shall not slake my smoldering rage.”
“Consider the message delivered,” she said. “Just send us back.”
Greatshadow eyed the Jagged Heart. “You must take this weapon from this place. I cannot recover while its bitterness poisons the energies of this land.”
She gingerly lifted the harpoon, making sure not to point the tip toward him.
“Some people are worried you’ll destroy the world because of what we’ve done to you,” she said, softly. “I could have killed you as you slept. I chose mercy instead.”
“Mercy is not a quality often attributed to flame,” growled Greatshadow.
“Is it not?” asked Infidel. “Many a wound has been cauterized by fire. Meat half gone to rot becomes a safe meal once it’s cooked. Men could not survive harsh winters without your help. There is more to flame than wrath and destruction.”
“Too many men think this way,” said Greatshadow, sounding indignant at what I thought had been a compliment. His eyes began to blaze as he said, “Men believe they have tamed me, trapping me in hearths to bake their bread and in foundries to forge their steel. They forget that I am a wild thing that will not remain in a cage. I have killed many men to remind others of this truth.”
“Perhaps you need reminding, too,” she said.
The dragon tilted his head in a quizzical look.
Infidel said, “The wind, the sea, the frozen wastes… these elements are used by men, but none are worthy of the partnership that man has formed with flame. Thanks to mankind, fire is everywhere. In the middle of the trackless ocean, fire can be found in lanterns aboard a ship. On the most frigid, snow-capped mountain, you’ll find fires glowing on hearths. Right now, even at this moment when you are at your weakest, men are lighting candles, torches, and bonfires, all of which help to restore you. There is far more fire in the world due to the actions of men than there would be without us. You may be a wild thing that doesn’t wish to be tamed, but certainly, even the wildest beast enjoys being fed. We nourish you with coal from far beneath the earth, we cut down forests to fill our fireplaces, and sometimes we even offer you our dead.”
Greatshadow nodded grudgingly. “You are wise, Princess Innocent, though you tell me a truth I already know. Even in my darkest moments of smoldering anger, I dare not destroy mankind. In a world without men, I would be very hungry indeed.”
“I don’t know that I’m wise,” said Infidel. “I just think we’re alike in some ways. We both hate anyone who tries to tame us, but understand we sometimes must do things we don’t want to do in order to keep a full belly.”
Greatshadow lifted his head high, sparks flying from his jaws as he roared, a sound like a blast furnace in great, puffing gusts. The noise nearly deafened me, but I felt no fear. It was obvious from the expression in his eyes that he was laughing.
“That a mere mortal thinks she is in any way like me is an amusing notion, Princess,” said the dragon. “It has been many centuries since I laughed so freely. You have earned your journey home.”
With these words, he extended his talon and used a long glowing claw to trace a large circle upon the ground before him. The stone inside that circle fell away, revealing a black pit, full of stars.
“The material world lies through this portal,” said Greatshadow.
Infidel turned her head toward me and motioned with her eyes that I should join her. I ran up and clasped her hand, giving her a swift kiss. She dragged me closer to the ring of fire. Fortunately, the Jagged Heart shielded us from the heat. Hand in hand, we stared into the abyss.
“Is it safe to jump?” I asked.
“When have we ever worried about that?” she said with a grin, falling forward, her fingers wrapped in mine. She dangled on the edge for the barest instant as my weight held her. Then, in total confidence, I leaned forward and we tumbled into the darkness.
Infidel released the Jagged Heart and it fell beside us in a lazy spin. We hugged each other tightly as we flew past stars, past moons and suns and comets. We tumbled though airless voids, hugging one another in terror, awe, and wonder. We were neither in the spirit realm nor the ordinary world of matter; we were two isolated souls, entangled, entwined, a whole and complete universe where seconds and hours had no meaning. Yet, despite our inability to measure time, our eternity of togetherness drew to a close as a great blue jewel of a world emerged from the void beneath us. We clung to each other as the world grew large enough for us to make out the shapes of landmasses beneath the wispy white oceans of clouds. We fell toward a small green speck amidst a vast blue sea, the wind tangling our hair as we slowly emerged from the abstract realms. Far below, we spotted a smoking caldera atop a high mountain that seemed to be the bulls-eye where we’d land.
We looked into each other’s eyes. There was no hope of speaking amid the howl of the wind whipping past us. We both knew that Greatshadow had cared nothing for our safety by sending us back along this path. Dropping to earth was no problem for him; he had wings. It was going to take more than a net of vines to save us this time.
Despite this knowledge, all I felt looking into Infidel’s face was joy that we would once more be together in the land of the living, however brief that experience might be.
She kissed me.
I kissed her back.
Her lips grew softer and softer until, suddenly they were gone. My arms closed around empty air. I opened my eyes and she was still inches away, her eyes wide, searching. I raised my hand to her cheek and it passed right through, as if she was a ghost.
Or as if I was. Infidel had fully emerged into the physical realm, and I was left behind, still a phantom.
“Infidel!” I screamed, as she dropped away, feeling the full tug of gravity. The Jagged Heart flashed past me, following its parallel path. I hovered in mid-air, no longer touched by gravity. I felt for the spirit tether of the bone-handled knife to pull me closer to Infidel but didn’t move at all. I looked down, and saw the knife tucked in my belt. My link to the material world was trapped with me on the other side.
I gave chase with all the speed I could muster, drawing close enough that I could see genuine fear in Infidel’s eyes as she tumbled toward the black caldera below. Even if Infidel had still been invulnerable, I don’t know if she could have survived a landing on volcanic stone without a net of vines to cushion her.
Then, rising from the caldera in a pale blue mist, a humanoid shape flew to intercept Infidel a half-mile above the ground. The foggy wraith reached out with ethereal fingers, stroking the shaft of the Jagged Heart. Light flashed from the tip of the harpoon, striking the stone below, and suddenly there was a hill of snow heaped a hundred feet tall, its base sizzling on the black rock. A second later, Infidel punched into the snow mound, leaving the perfect outline of her splayed limbs in the surface. The Jagged Heart dropped into the snow several yards distant, far enough away I didn’t worry she’d been impaled.
The ghost of Aurora continued to drift upward, raising a hand in greeting as she saw me. “You can see why my people built a temple around the harpoon.”
“Will she be alright?” I asked, staring down into the hole Infidel had left in the snow mountain. I couldn’t see anything in the shadows. The whole pile was melting at a frightening pace, an ever-growing puddle boiling off at the edges.
“It was like she fell onto a mountain of feathers,” said Aurora.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you. You’ve stuck around longer than the others did after they died,” I said. “Does that mean I’ll have some company from now on?”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t leave until I saw the Jagged Heart had returned from the land of the dead. I assume your efforts were successful?”
I shrugged. “We’ll need to wait a few weeks to find out if she’s pregnant.”
Aurora gave me a blank stare.
“Oh! You mean did we kill Greatshadow?”
She nodded.
“She let him live. He let us go.”
She raised a blue eyebrow. “Why?”
I shrugged. “She had her reasons.” I didn’t want to admit that I didn’t fully understand Infidel’s choices. I hoped Aurora wouldn’t ask any follow-up questions.
Aurora looked north. “It doesn’t matter. The call of my ancestors is strong. I hear the songs they sing as they chase the ghost whales in the Great Sea Above. I want to join their hunt.”
“Go,” I said. “The Jagged Heart is in good hands. We’ll see that it gets home.”
Aurora gave me a smile that said, I know, then faded from my sight.
A half-mile below, Infidel climbed from a pile of slushy snow now only a few yards high. Her lips and fingertips were completely blue. She stumbled forward, dragging the Jagged Heart behind her, limping toward the circle of light atop the dragon skull where Zetetic and Relic waited. I flew toward Relic and said, “You’re in big trouble.”
He didn’t respond.
“Hey!” I shouted, waving my fingers in front of him.
Nothing. Yet, I was still relatively solid, as a phantom goes. I could see my own fingers, and was pleased to see I was still wearing my braided wedding ring. I seemed to have my full phantom body; I even had the clothing Zetetic had dressed me in. Why couldn’t Relic hear me? Or, maybe he could, and was just being spiteful?
Infidel climbed up onto the skull, her teeth chattering. She tossed the harpoon to Zetetic and said, “You. Carry this. Carry it over there, in fact. I’m freezing.”
He nodded and backed up about ten feet, so that she was no longer in the range of the harpoon’s aura of cold. He said, “You’ve changed since last we met. I like you with long hair. You could use a comb, though.”
“I could use a jacket even more. Brrr.” She leaned down and picked up the Immaculate Attire. “I wondered where this went.” She slipped the pants and vest on and the magical leather adjusted to fit her. With her arms outstretched as she dressed, her eyes lingered for a moment on the braid of hair still on her finger. I wondered why it had made the transition while mine didn’t?
Infidel didn’t dwell on the ring for long, however. Instead, while she pulled on the boots that went with the armor, she eyed Relic (we didn’t yet know he’d changed his name). “Your daddy is going to kill you one day. But he wants to build suspense first.”
“Greatshadow’s alive? How can he still be alive?”
“You’re the mind reader. You already know why I did what I did.”
His reptilian eyes narrowed into slits as he stared at her. “I… I can’t read your thoughts.”
She looked surprised.
“Oh no,” said Relic, rising up. “I could feel it earlier. During his sadistic assault, his spirit moved within me, ripping my mind as he snapped my body. But, with no other minds near that I could look within, I didn’t realize what he’d done. He’s torn the part of my mind that senses the thoughts of others! I’m blind!”
“It won’t matter once you’re dead,” said Infidel.
“Isn’t it enough he crippled me physically?” Relic growled, as his eyes burned like cinders. “He had to cripple my mind as well?”
Zetetic cleared his throat. “You may not be as crippled as you think. One of my teachers was the world’s foremost scholar on dragons. I could introduce you to him, if you’d like. He’s studied dragon skeletons at every stage of development. Reptiles possess amazing powers of regeneration. He might know how to break your bones and reset them properly.”
“That sounds painful,” said Relic.
Zetetic shrugged. “Just a suggestion.”
Relic nodded. “I will… consider the offer.”
He looked back toward Infidel. “I don’t suppose my father… that he… did he, by chance…”
“What?” she asked.
“Did he happen to mention my gender? Did he refer to me as ‘my son’ or ‘my daughter?’”
“Um, no. He called you ‘offspring.’”
Relic looked crushed by this news.
Infidel leaned over and picked up the Gloryhammer. She slung it over her shoulder. “This is mine now.”
“Really?” asked Relic. “What gives you a claim to it?”
“The fact that I will flatten anyone who tries to take it from me.”
“I find your reasoning quite persuasive,” said Zetetic.
Infidel’s feet lifted from the ground a few wobbling inches. The light of the Gloryhammer gleamed on the silver trim of her new boots. “This hammer will come in handy. Flying will make getting to Aurora’s homeland a lot faster.”
“Why are you going there?” asked Zetetic.
“To return the Jagged Heart,” she said. “Stagger told me that Aurora’s dying words were a plea to see that the harpoon was returned to its rightful home. I intend to make that happen. I need to do this mission fast. I can’t afford to spend a few months aboard a ship.”
“Why not?” asked Zetetic.
“She thinks she’s pregnant,” said Relic.
“I thought you couldn’t read minds,” she said.
“I knew of the Black Swan’s prophecy. I take it you reunited with Stagger?”
“I have the Jagged Heart, don’t I?”
“But he remains in the realm of the dead?”
She frowned, looking down at the braided band on her finger. “He sort of… faded out on the way back. But… but I…” She swallowed hard. “He’ll always be with me in my heart.”
“I’m here,” I whispered near her cheek. “I’ll always be here.”
“The bone-handled knife is gone?” asked Relic.
She looked a little pale as she nodded slowly.
“Then he’s lost forever,” said Relic.
Infidel rose a few feet higher in the air, looking straight overhead, toward the last place she saw me. “He trusted me,” she said, her voice faint. Then, she looked down, her face firm with resolve. “And I will spend every day of my life proving I deserve that trust. My leap-before-I-look days are behind me. I’m going to be a great mother.”
“Says the woman who just made a spur of the moment decision to fly to the North Pole via enchanted mallet,” said Zetetic.
“Just for that, I’m not giving you a ride out of this volcano.”
“That’s fine. I have the power to fly and am finally over my fear of heights,” he said, as their gazes locked. He jumped into the air, and stayed there. “You warmed up?”
“Warm enough,” she said.
He tossed her the Jagged Heart, which she caught in one hand. Her flight grew wobbly as she rose another couple of yards in the air. “Thinking-ahead Infidel sure wishes she had Tower’s little magic book to carry the harpoon,” she said.
Zetetic shrugged as he rose to her level. “Too bad it got burned up when Tower’s armor disintegrated.”
“No!” I shouted. “He has it!”
But, I hadn’t mentioned this to Infidel, so she merely said, “I guess I can rig up some kind of sling.”
Zetetic sank back down and offered a hand to Relic. “Can I offer you a ride?”
Relic sighed as he raised the claw that Nowowon had mangled least. “Any place in the world is safer than here.”
I floated next to Infidel as the three of them rose like balloons toward the edge of the caldera. The shadows of the vast pit fell away as we reached the sky and found the sun rising on the eastern ocean. Pale golden rays danced over a shimmering sea, bathing the treetops below with a radiance that made the dewy canopy look as if someone had spilled a bucket of glistening jewels.
And I finally got it. I understood what Infidel had meant when she said she’d already discovered Greatshadow’s treasure. It was the island itself, the last wilderness, and I knew, with the same certainty that I knew that stone is hard and fire is hot and water is wet, that there would be no better place on the planet for our daughter to grow up.
“I’m dying to hear the details of what happened in the spirit realm,” Zetetic said.
“What happened between Stagger and me is private, you creep,” said Infidel, sounding genuinely offended.
Zetetic shook his head. “I mean, the details of your confrontation with Greatshadow. The Jagged Heart should have killed him. You got close enough for conversation; presumably you were close enough to strike. Why didn’t you finish him? You’ve gambled the safety of the world by sparing him. What possible reason could have stayed your hand?”
“If I’d killed Greatshadow, all this would be gone,” she said, her eyes scanning the jungle as they slowly flew down the slope at about the pace of a good jog, heading toward Commonground. “My father’s men would come and set up lumber mills and mines. Before you know it, there would be farms everywhere. The priests would follow and build churches, and in a couple of years, this place would start to look civilized.”
“Indeed,” said Zetetic. “That was precisely the plan.”
“But it wasn’t my plan. I’ve spent the best years of my life here, and I like the island as it is: untamed and untamable. I grew up in a world of castle walls and armed guards and endless rules that shackled the soul as well as the body. I’ve had a taste of freedom now and will never give it up. I want to raise my daughter in a world that still has a place where the wicked may hide from the righteous.”
Zetetic slowed a bit. “Damn,” he said, with a nod. “That’s not a bad reason at all.”
Infidel shrugged, with an expression that told me she didn’t particularly care if he approved of her reasons or not. She flew on a little ways, until, suddenly, she looked back over her shoulder, her eyes wistful as she stared at the sky above the caldera, toward the spot where I’d vanished.
Then her distant gaze shifted, looking much closer, not quite to where I hovered, but not so far off either.
“You aren’t in this alone,” I said, with a reassuring smile.
I’m sure it was only a coincidence that, at that exact second, she smiled back.