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Keon caught himself before he said anything, because Akoni and Auryn had no idea why I was K’Dol adverse.
“You want to study K’Dol?” Akoni asked.
“Something like that.”
“But it is clear from these documents that portals and Gates are completely different things. It is explicit that portals arebuilt, and Gates areforged.”
Keon drew in a breath. “Can you two give us like ten minutes? I don’t want to tell you why she’s suggesting this. But… we owe it to humanity to talk about it.”
“How dangerous would it be?” Akoni asked dryly.
“As risky as contacting Homeworld will be.”
“When you put it like that, it doesn’t sound risky at all,” I commented.
“Let them talk.” Auryn stood and brushed Akoni’s shoulder. “We’ll walk down to the dock and back.”
“We will?” Akoni headed after Auryn.
“Why, you have somewhere else you want to go?”
“Depends. Can we hold hands?”
“Only if we can skip and singLittle Bunny Foo Foo.”
They descended the exterior stairs while discussing the lyrics ofLittle Bunny Foo Foo.
“Think they’re actually going to do that?” I asked.
“I would pay good money to see either of them skipping down the street, much less holding hands while doing it,” Keon said.
We paused, listening for sounds that either of them were attempting to sing or skip.
Keon swung his attention back to me. “K’Dol. Why?”
“Because K’Dol knew I was a Chaos dragon before anyone knew. Even A’ka. It knew before I even met A’ka.”
“Fair, but you’re also so frightened of K’Dol you’d rather risk Dekka’s fury.”
“If my choice is Dekka’s fury or leaving something on the table, I’d rather take Dekka’s fury.”
“You’re afraid K’Dol is dangerous.”
“IknowK’Dol is dangerous. But I don’t have the sameoh hell nofeeling about K’Dol that I have about other things. Don’t you remember how I once said the portal wasn’t that bad?”
Keon shifted his weight back, causing the muscles of his torso and thighs to flex. “And you threw my plan to go off the grid topside in my face.”
“Don’t compare your half-baked plan to ride out a global catastrophe withmyhalf-baked plan to stick my head in a magical portal and ask the entity that haunts it what’s for dinner.”
“I’m not sure how that makes sense, but it somewhat does. I’m still not moved, though.”
“What if Homeworld fell? Everyone glosses over the possibility that if we call Homeworld, someone might answer we don’t want to talk to. There are no good options left here thataren’tthe Gate, and I refuse to believe the cosmos made me to oversee the destruction of modern human civilization so the dragons can bring about a great and glorious new world order.” I gestured grandly to some imaginary sculpture while feeling vaguely nauseous.
“Why did the cosmos make Kern, then? We had to wait until the magnetar traversed to contact Homeworld, and if Kern had done his homework, he should have been fully mature in his considerable powers and been prepared to mitigate the effects of the communications array. But it’s too late for that now, so the cosmos created all of us.”
“But you said—” He hadsaidI was meant to open the Gate.
He reached for my hands. “I did. And I was wrong. I was certain we’d find something.”
