Of Truth and Beasts

Wynn cried out as the memory ended. Remnants of the forgotten events washed though her with heat that couldn’t be real.

Deep-Root and the dragon had sacrificed themselves, along with a seatt gone mad, to stop enemy forces from gaining access to the northern lands.

A multitongued voice rose in Wynn’s mind.

Remember!

That word hung alone in the whiteness, which grayed and grew darker.

A flicker like a flame rose—but not in the dark. It reflected on twin obsidian orbs so large they blocked out everything else. Those twin eyes watched Wynn, as the dancing shimmers of orange-red within them spread everywhere in the dark ... spread like memories in Wynn’s mind. As the last of Deep-Root’s images faded, a fresh ache assaulted her. It was like something fiercely pulling at her thoughts, and she felt her own memories rising.

The world went black again for an instant. Then she saw herself moving backward in time, each memory coming more rapidly than the last. First was a clear image and the sensation of the pump cart as it moved, but it was moving backward. Every memory flowed in reverse to another as she relived ...

... driving the wagon down the Slip-Tooth Pass ...

... the attack of the Fay in the Lhoin’na great forest ...

... traveling with Chane, Shade, and Ore-Locks on the ship as they journeyed toward Drist ...

... fighting the wraith in the underworld of Dhredze Seatt ...

... being shunned by her peers in the guild at Calm Seatt ...

... Chane crouching on the ground near a stable, when he first handed her the scroll, lonely hope in his eyes ...

... Shade diving from a dark street to protect her from the wraith ...

... the journey from the Farlands to her homeland with Magiere, Leesil, and Chap ...

And the images came even more rapidly.

... Sgäile lying dead under a willow tree ...

... Chap helping her remove ancient texts from the ice-bound castle’s library ...

... battling Welstiel’s feral vampires in that castle ...

... jumping from a burning elven ship into a lifeboat with Osha ...

... facing Most Aged Father before the council of the an’Cróan ...

... sobbing with her head on Chane’s bloody chest after Magiere cut off his head...

... standing beside Leesil as he uncovered the remains of the five races sacrificed for Magiere’s birth ...

... drinking mint tea with Chane, before she knew he was an undead, as they pored over historical parchments in peace and quiet at the guild annex in Bela ...

Memories rushed back and back, until she stood in the central council hall of Bela. Leesil, Magiere, and Chap came walking down the broad passage. She looked down at Chap and then smiled up at Leesil, seeing his amber eyes for the very first time.

“Stop!” Wynn cried out.

Her shoulder suddenly ached, but her life continued to race by, as if it were only these tiny blinks of time.

Memories suddenly halted, leaving her in darkness, but the pain in her shoulder sharpened. Behind a leaf-wing’s cacophony, broken words echoed over and over.

—Wynn ... come back.... Wynn ... wake up— 

Wynn opened her eyes to Shade standing above her. Shade’s jaws were clamped on her shoulder, biting through the cloak, as the dog pulled and shook her.

“Don’t,” Wynn moaned, reaching up.

But lying there on the tunnel floor, the unfamiliar presence remained inside her head. The sensation was nothing like the feel of sharing memories with Shade, or Chap’s multilingual voice in her head. It was harsh and unbreakable, and Wynn clamped her eyes shut again.

It was so deep inside her that she could feel emotions that weren’t her own. Hope and suspicion, spite and hesitation, all crawled about inside her, as if that presence was searching for something.

Wynn cracked open her eyes.

She looked up into twin obsidian orbs in a reptilian head that filled her view. The dragon stared down at her, unblinking, its presence so deep inside her that she began to sense something of it in turn.

It was a descendant of the one who’d come for Deep-Root. It had been waiting here for so long ... for something. That other, greater dragon and that forgotten and fallen stonewalker raised one question in Wynn’s mind.

Where was Ore-Locks?

A pounding sound overlayed with the grating of massive claws finally broke through her haze. She lifted her head at the vibrations in the tunnel floor beneath her back.

Another dragon, not quite as large as the first, crawled down the tunnel from the direction of the breach into the Chamber of the Fallen. Shade released her grip on Wynn’s shoulder and turned to snarl at it.

The second dragon halted, fixing on Shade.

Wynn was frozen in confusion. A soft sound of lighter footsteps echoed from down the tunnel into the dark. When she looked, a light came bobbing up out of the dark behind the first dragon.