“We do,” Khalida boasted. “You know,youmight have dormant abilities. Sayers could do all kinds of stuff once upon a time. Have prophetic visions, move things with their mind, heal people, even communicate with animals. They had to have such potential so that the gods could use them as vessels and act through them. That could apply to you, too.”
Doubtful, in my opinion.
“Talon can dofarmore than any of us can,” Khalida went on. “He is lightning fast—sometimes, you don’t even see him move. His strength is off the charts. He can conjure things. And he shoots golden sparks of power that are lethal.”
I forked my last piece of chicken. “Is it true that he can shift into a dragon?”
“Yes, but it’s not so much a preternatural ability.” Khalida paused. “Vitus didn’t actuallycreateTalon. He … changed him.”
I felt my brow pinch. “Changed him?”
“Vitus took the soul of a baby dragon and trapped it in the form of a human infant, which he then immortalized.”
A shocked gasp wisped out of me. “You’re joking.”
She shook her head, her face grim. “Cruel as hell, isn’t it? Talon might wear the skin of a man, but he has the soul of a beast. That’s where his uncivilized edge comes from. He can shift into a dragon, but he can’t keep that form for long periods.”
Minos’ earlier words about the primordials came back to me then …It would not be the first time they placed a soul in a body that was not intended to home it.
Ah, so he’d meant Talon.
I didn’t put any real stock in the idea that my soul was godkin. It seemed more like the Sovereigns didn’t want to believe that the primordials would choose a human. I’d never had the feeling that I didn’t belong in my body. But I somehow doubted that Talon could claim the latter, and it was positively tragic.
I lowered my cutlery to my pewter. “I can’t imagine being stuck in a body that isn’t natural for me. Does he shift into his dragon form often?”
Soule shook his head. “Mostly only if there’s an emergency when we need his firepower. In that form, he’s … different. When I shift into a lion, I become more savage and primitive. But I’m still me, still a man. For Talon, it’s the other way around. He doesn’t think or act like a person when he shifts, he thinks and acts like a beast.”
Khalida nodded. “It’s a whole other state of mind where he’d happily eat a person or set someone he doesn’t like on fire—enemy, officiate, whatever. Dragons were only ever loyal to their horde and to the gods. Talon would fight as a dragon to protect his territory, but he wouldn’t care about collateral damage. Not even the Sovereigns would be safe.” She paused. “It’s worse on full moons.”
“Why?”
“He can’t physically shift on full moons, but he doesmentally—and it’s something he has no control over. He’s basically rabid at such times. He’ll kill anyone, friend or foe. It’s why he isolates himself on full moons, though no one seems entirely sure where he goes.”
I absently rubbed my shoulder. “I have to say, I wasn’t expecting to hear any of that.”
“Only those at Deimos really know the truth about Talon,” Quillen told me. “I think the Sovereigns like for there to be an air of mystery around their Cardinal—it makes him even scarier than he already is.”
Or maybe they didn’t want people to know that there was in fact one last dragon in the world. A dragon trapped in a man’s body—something they had likely made no attempt to reverse, if they even could. “Wait, is this why he doesn’t talk? It’s a case that he actually can’t?”
Khalida’s shoulders lifted and fell. “I’m not sure if anyone in the Tapestry knows the truth of why. I doubt Minos really took his tongue, but the officiates who’ve been in Talon’s bed weren’t able to confirm it. Apparently, he doesn’t kiss.”
I felt my brows shoot up. “Oh. Okay.”
“Some think he’s purposefully mute,” Khalida continued. “Even when he was young, the Sovereigns treated him as a weapon. They did all sorts of things—including subjecting him to various forms of torture in an effort to desensitize him from fear and pain. Some say that, because they ignored his screams and cries and pleas for them to stop, Talon stopped making any sounds at all.”
Following her train of thought, I asked, “You mean as an act of defiance? He couldn’t control what they did, but he could control what responses he gave them?”
“It’s the theory that some in the Tapestry believe. There’s lots that we don’t know about our Cardinal, so we can only speculate. Much as we can only speculate as to why the gods chose a Sayer for a human, for that matter.”
“Minos suggested that I might be an experiment; that the primordials took the soul of a godkin and shoved it into the body of a human.” And now that I knew what had been done to Talon … “It clearly wouldn’t be out of character for them.”
“No,” agreed Layna with a sigh. “No, it wouldn’t.”
???
After leavingthe food hall. Khalida and Quillen took me up the steps that led to the rise so that I could see beyond the walls of the garrison. From there, I got a much better look at both the fortress and the uninhabited land. There was awholelot of water between the garrison and the fortress’s courtyard. You could cross it by bridge or using rowing boats.
The godkin-couple then showed me around the garrison, giving me a better feel of the place than Jelani had done earlier. Fed up with all the staring, I didn’t make eye-contact with anyone as I strolled around. I simply kept my head held high and my attention on my companions or surroundings. And I came to realize that though the garrison had that no-nonsense design, it also possessed a homey feel.
