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We arrived, and Auryn offered me a hand up onto the dock.
Any relief I might have felt about the trip being over was erased by the eighteen dragons I’d never met before, waiting for us in the fields.
Sorren stepped off the boat with commanding ease, his formal shendyt not even brushing the water's surface as he did so. He carried his two weapons and satchel like they weighed nothing and headed right for the eighteen dragons.
Instantly, the dragons squared up into two groups of nine, standing three by three. Each wore a bandolier of leather across their chests, and two matching belts across each hip. Any doubt I might have had aboutwhatthey were was settled as I took in the neatly packed and uniform arrangement of packs and weapons they had, and the three wagons pulled by ponies. They’d come overland from North itself.
While I didn’t see any firearms, each dragon had two spears in his kit: one that looked like your regular pointy-business murder stick, and the other one exactly like what you’d expect a space dragon to have. The unholy offspring of a cattle prod, spear, radio antenna, and a very angry narwhale.
A few tried to slide their gaze towards me, but Sorren cleared his throat, and the eyes snapped front so fast you could hear the click.
“I am not one for speeches,” Sorren said, tone somewhat dour. “We are going to the Gate. And you are goingthroughthe Gate to Homeworld.”
The soldiers shifted slightly, but they were professionals who had presumably been trained for some kind of invasion.
Sorren shifted his own bag over the one shoulder he’d bothered to sling it across. “You will not discuss any of this with Lemuria. You will remain silent. If rumors begin, I will know where they sprang from. We have already been through the Gate. My consort went through the first time. My son and his consorts went through the second. Now you are going through the third. Homeworld lost the war. It appears to be a lifeless, blasted rock. Half of you will go through the Gate to stand guard on the Homeworld side. Half of you will guard this side with me. There is likely nothing alive, but we are taking no chances.”
Now Sorren dipped his head towards us. “They will be going through for reconnaissance.Youare not to leave your position at the Gate. You are not to interact with anything that approaches you except to defend the Gate or yourselves from a direct and plain threat. We don’t want to start another war. If necessary, come through the Gate and I will pull the power supply to close it. Helena can re-open it from the Homeworld side.”
Right. Glad he’d let us in on his plan.
Sorren nodded to me. “Prepare them for the Gate. Keon, you are the most senior topside drake. This is your mission.”
I briefly explained the Gate experience, and then left the dragons to process the reality ofChaos dragon, Gate, Homeworld, Gowhile I went down the tunnel into the Gate cavern.
“There hasgotto be an easier way to do this,” Akoni said as he rolled my danger noodle self up off the cavern floor and gently untangled my large wings. The Gate, now open, not-roared as it rotated.
I flopped into his chest while Auryn checked my pulse by shoving his hand into my tummy/throat/chest area.Chirp.
“Rest,” Auryn said. My magic started to siphon light off his wrist.
I hated the empty plastic feeling of my scales, but I hated re-filling them with Auryn more.Sad Chirp.
He bowed his human head over my serpent one and brushed his cheek against mine. “Take it. I am not a little star. I am large enough you can sense and see me at vast distances.”
Akoni rolled me a few degrees towards Auryn as he freed some of my wing membrane. “I think that is the drake-of-light’s attempt at bedroom humor.”
“I do not recall laughing.” Auryn’s tone had a bit of velvet authority to it. My tail twitched.
Being vaguely aroused while magically exhausted and in dragon form was a weird experience. Auryn pressed his fingertips into my scales, moving them in a rhythm and in precise spots while his expression remained smoldering and smug. Was he copping a feel?
He was totally copping a feel.
I twitched my tail/body around—which was fully formed due to exhaustion—and swatted him with a chirp-scold.
Auryn lifted his hand back to where it had been originally. Akoni smirked as he freed the last bit of my wing membrane. “Rest and ignore him. He chooses moments like this to attempt to prove he is in control.”
Gold mist rose off Auryn’s skin. He leaned over me, his magic brushing all my empty scales with a spring breeze caress. “You’re more drained than the last two times you did this.”
Changing the subject while still having that awkward tingle going through my scales. Jerk.
My knowledge from the grimoire didn’t include very much about using a Distant Star in this way (beyond it was dangerous), but the grimoire knowledge of Distant Stars was at best hand-me-down folklore. Auryn was only the third Distant Star in all of recorded dragon history.
“I suspect,” Auryn said, placing his palm over some parts of my torso, “it depletes you in the way athletic competition depletes you. Sustained, maximum, total effort creates a type of depletion not typical under other circumstances.”
Confused chirp.I didn’t feel like I felt when I’d been molting.
“I suspect you need more time to fully recover and stabilize between Gate openings. We shouldn’t test this further.”
