The Dragon Glaive: Fire Sigil
Prince Aiden tapped the screen of his codex and moved his fingers sideways to enlarge the image. There was no question--it was the same symbol, the one he had dubbed the fire sigil--a round circle, slightly roughened to give the idea of flames rising from it, with an asymmetrical cone or crest in the center. He stared at it questioningly. Was the design in the center meant to represent flame as well? It could be, but he couldn't escape the feeling the truth was something different--something that he ought to know, even though he didn't.
He put the codex back in its sheath and paced his chamber. It probably shouldn't have engaged his attention so much. But there was something about the sigil which intrigued him. Once he had first noticed it, he had done some research and realized that it occurred over and over throughout the kingdom's artwork and records, but only in things dating back to the very the beginning of the kingdom, to the Golden Age.
In his pacing, he stopped before the window and stared down at the city spread below him. These days, fire was a common-enough sight--working it into a symbol would be expected. He noted several places across the sprawling streets where an orange glow tokened the presence of fire. He remembered V'kaya once saying that they lived in a kingdom of death and fire. He wasn't as morbid as V'kaya and probably wouldn't have added the part about death--but he couldn't deny the fire. Naturally, one might represent the kingdom with the sign of fire now--but it hadn't been that way in the Golden Age. So was it just a coincidence? Or did it have a meaning and if so, what?
Prince Aiden II was a young man, just past seventeen, tall and lean but well-muscled. His eyes were green and his hair jet black with streaks of red (a reoccurring genetic trait in the royal family). He was clean-shaven and his face had a certain openness and innocence that tended to make people think he was younger than he was. But if you looked in his eyes, you found a certain depth there, the kind that is only found in those who have lived many years or who have thought very deeply about the world. For the most part, his face remained placid, the face of a scholar--but it could also change in an instant.
As he stood at the window, he stiffened suddenly at the sound of rushing wind somewhere nearby. That had to be-- and then he heard the familiar harsh scream and an orange body flashed by the tower. It was just an instant but enough for him to take in all he needed to know. In that instant, his face had changed. The scholar was gone and had been replaced by the soldier. With a bound, he was on the far side of the room and had pulled on his flight gear and then selected a glaive from a rack of several which hung on the wall. The next instant he had jumped to the sill of his window and then dove out into the morning sky.
The bird-like wings of his flight gear beat slowly for a moment, holding him aloft as he took a look around, getting his bearings, and then they folded and he shot downward towards a spot on the street just outside the walls of the palace complex. The wings fully extended at the last possible instant, breaking his descent enough so that he landed safely on the street--directly in front of the orange, reptilian form of his antagonist.
Aiden's eyes narrowed. Even though he had fought so many battles, he still could not escape this initial sense of revulsion whenever he faced a dragon. As a scholar, he had read works from other kingdoms speaking of a certain beauty in dragons. Apparently, they were infested with a very different kind of dragon, or, more likely, had never met them except in fancy. There was something inherently corrupt and unnatural about the form of the dragons which always disgusted him--even though every dragon was slightly different. This was a larger dragon than he had thought at first--about his own size in height and three or four times that in length. It was probably about fifteen years old, though its horn had been broken at some point, making it hard to judge its age with certainty.
The dragon's intended victims had been two children who now stood cowering against the blank wall behind Aiden. The unexpected intrusion caused the dragon to pause for a moment, its yellow, lidless, pupilless, soulless eyes taking in every detail about the newcomer. Aiden was taking stock of the dragon as well. He would have liked to drive the dragon back into the air (even though fighting a full-grown dragon while airborne was essentially suicide) since this was a fairly tightly populated area of the city. However, once a dragon had landed it took a lot of effort to force it up again and he wasn't going to have a lot of effort to spare.
Before the dragon could make its move, Aiden had pulled his glaive from its holder on his back and thrust it forward, aiming for the dragon's wing, usually its weakest point. He connected and the dragon gave a scream, more of rage than pain and fired a burst of dragonsfire at him. Fortunately, his shield projector was working and the fire scattered harmlessly.
It was good but his shield wouldn't hold out forever and he couldn't see that he had inflicted any real damage. Jumping slightly to the side, he thrust his glaive in at another angle, this time aiming at the dragon's forehead. It would be harder to get a meaningful hit there, but if he did it would do more damage.
Glaives were a good weapon for fighting dragons (even if they were weaker overall than other weapons) because of their long reach. The short blade fixed to the end of a long pole was perfect for attacking without coming within range of the dragonsfire. They were a more precise, technical weapon, making them a perfect fit for Aiden's style of fighting. This particular glaive was an elemental glaive, an ice glaive, and the short blade glowed white like ancient ice. As it struck the dragon's head, shards of ice scattered across the dragon, melting instantly in the heat of its body.
For a few minutes, Aiden and the dragon continued exchanging attacks, neither one doing much damage. Aiden's glaive was not proving as effective as he would have liked. He had thought the dragon was a little younger when he saw it from his window, which was why he had chosen the ice glaive, which was a good weapon against a young dragon. For a dragon of this age, he would have been better off with a more powerful, non-elemental glaive. He smiled grimly. V'kaya would have a few well-chosen words to say about that later.
But at the moment, his only concern was killing the dragon without endangering anyone else. Already, the dragon's rampage had crushed and dented a few nearby walls and there were several mounds of smoldering dragonsfire on every side of him. At this rate, it wouldn't matter much whether he won or lost. And since he couldn't win quickly and cleanly, he would have to try a different approach. He touched the shield projector on his belt with his left hand and made a few quick adjustments.
The dragon screamed again as it felt what he had done. By altering the controls of the shield projector, he had moved the shield from being around him to being around the dragon--effectively locking him in place and minimizing the damage he did to the area around him, also making it easier for Aiden to score a hit. The downside was that projecting such a large and complete shield would eat up the projector's internal battery very quickly, leaving Aiden defenseless. It put a timer on his battle, but it still seemed like the best option to him.
The shield did prevent the dragon from making any direct attacks on Aiden, but it didn't change the fact that it was an incredibly tough and powerful dragon, and rather agile, too. Even in its limited space, it managed to dodge several of Aiden's attacks and simply tanked the rest. Given enough time, he could have finished it off, but it was beginning to look as he wasn't going to have that time.
With a warning beep, the shield projector's battery died and the shield vanished from around the dragon. The dragon instinctively felt the change and reared back, raising its head as if preparing to launch its final attack.
And then there was a whoosh of wind from somewhere above. A shadow darkened the sun for a moment and then two silver blades flashed through the air. Aiden had already weakened the dragon sufficiently and this last attack was enough. The next instant, the dragon lay still and lifeless.
And the instant the dragon was dead, the soldier faded from Aiden's face and he was a scholar again. He dropped down to one knee beside the dragon and began examining it critically. Pulling his codex from its sheath, he made a few quick notes and then turned his attention to the dragonsfire which still smoldered in orange, burning piles around the scene of the battle. He distantly heard voices talking--his last-minute ally was giving some direction to the children whom the dragon had tried to attack, telling them to get to safety--but he was too occupied to pay much attention.
Dragonsfire was almost as big a problem on its own as the dragons themselves. It was only a euphemism to say that dragons breathed fire. They didn't breath it--the course truth was that they vomited it. Dragonsfire was a solid substance somehow produced inside the dragon's body and then expelled through the mouth like a projectile. No one seemed to know exactly what it was, but it would continue to burn for years after being expelled. Nothing could quench it and very few materials offered much security against it--which was why the shield projector had been invented. Not only was there nothing they could do to get rid of it, but even being near it seemed to make people sick. Finding some way of purifying the dragon's fire was almost as large and important problem as driving away the dragons themselves.
He was thus occupied when, a rough voice broke into his thoughts: “What do you have to say for yourself this time, Aiden?”
Aiden turned around and stood up. “Thank you for that assist, V'kaya,” he said, facing his companion.
“After that kind of childish battle, it would have been better to have let that dragon kill you.”
“Doesn't having your student die reflect badly on you as a teacher?”
“Having a student like you is a disgrace as it is. To think that after all I've done, a foolish boy would be the trainee of V'kaya of the Two Blades.”
V'kaya stood nearly half a foot taller than Aiden, despite only being three years older, though at least an inch of that height was because of her dusky armor, which was somewhat bulkier than Aiden's. As she spoke to him, she held her two signature broadswords, one in each hand, eyeing them almost as if contemplating skewering him with one of them, but now she raised them and returned them to their sheaths.
“What were you even doing out here?” she demanded, taking a step forward and confronting him, her hands on her hips. “You weren't supposed to be on patrol this morning.”
“I wasn't, but I saw that dragon from my room and had to engage it.”
“So you still don't even begin to understand how the discipline of an army works, do you?”
“There were no other warriors around and if I hadn't fought it, that dragon would have killed those children and probably broken through the palace walls.”
She made a dismissive noise in the back of her throat. “And so you thought you'd take on a dragon of that age with a weak elemental glaive? And then try that crazy stunt with your shield? If I hadn't shown up, you'd be dead. Not that anybody cares about that. But even you realize that a wounded dragon is a worse threat than a healthy dragon. If you weren't sure you could finish him off, you shouldn't have engaged him in the first place.” Her face darkened and her tone became rougher. “You still don't get the first thing about being a warrior, even after all my teaching. Any other warrior that behaved as recklessly and carelessly as you do would be punished, but because you're royalty--”
“Yes, yes, I know.” Aiden had heard this speech before.
V'kaya was the most skilled warrior in the kingdom and had more kills to her name than anyone in the royal army, despite being only twenty. She was known as V'kaya of the Two Blades because of her skill with the two large broadswords--swords which some warriors would have been hard-pressed to use effectively on their own, let alone together. That was what she was called to her face, anyway. Behind her back, many of her fellow soldiers called V'kaya the Angry because of perpetual temper.
Aiden, besides being her pupil, was also her friend and so had been the only one ever to learn that a good deal of her anger was actually a facade. (How much of it had to do with her youth and the fact that she was one of only a handful of women in a predominately male profession must remain a question.) Aiden had learned to ignore a good deal of her tirades.
“Did you report the location?” he asked, changing the subject.
“Yes. I'll have a detail here to bury the dragon's body within the hour.”
“If only we could deal with the dragonsfire that simply.” Aiden turned back to look at the dragon's corpse and stopped suddenly. “That's--that's it!” He pulled out his codex again and quickly pulled up some images. “Of course. That's why it seemed familiar. That's what the fire sigil represents.”
“Aiden, you are going to have to make up your mind whether you are going to be a soldier or a scholar. Trying to do both is just going to get us all killed.”
“I can't help but think that we need both to save this kingdom, V'kaya. But look at this.” He turned to her, showing her the screen of his codex. “This symbol--the fire sigil--it appears in many old documents and even some old architecture. And I just realized what it is. That crest in the middle is a dragon's head, with the horn at the top. It's rather simplified, of course, but there's no doubt that's what it is.”
For an instant, a strange look sparked in V'kaya's fierce, black eyes, but Aiden was intent on his idea and didn't notice. “So what?” she asked.
“This symbol dates back to the founding of the kingdom--to the Golden Age before the coming of the dragons. And yet the dragon appears in this symbol. That means they knew about the dragons even then. And that could mean that they had some way of keeping the dragons back--some way that was lost, allowing the dragons to invade us. And if they did, we may be able to find it.”
“How many times do I have to tell you to stop chasing these fairy tales and concentrate on your work?”
He sheathed his codex and turned to look at her. “Concentrate on my work? This is my work. Or will be someday. As the successor to the throne, I've got to find some way of ending this war, once and for all--of driving the dragons out and purifying the dragonsfire. I think that's why my father gave me the name Aiden--the only Aiden in the royal line beside the first Aiden, the King of the Golden Age. Somehow, I'm going to find a way to bring things back to the way they were then, to fulfill all the dreams and ideals which our kingdom had before the dragons came. That's my life's purpose, V'kaya. That's my destiny.”
V'kaya made an angry motion with her hand as if slapping an invisible person beside her. “As a warrior of this kingdom, your destiny is to be dragon food--and if you keep acting like this, I'll feed you to them myself. Now, get back to your chamber and stay there. I'll come by for inspection later and you'd better have all your armor and weapon in top shape or else--royalty or not.”
Aiden glanced at her. He knew her well enough to know that most of her anger wasn't entirely sincere. And knowing that, he could tell that at this moment, her anger was most definitely real. And even he was not too keen on upsetting V'kaya when she was really angry.
“Of course. I'll be ready.”
As V'kaya watched him leave, she made a short, wordless sound of anger and then shot upward, the wings of her flight gear beating the air. Cutting a quick swath through the sky, she landed inside the palace complex. Leaving her flight gear, she stalked through the corridors of the palace, her armored feet beating an angry tattoo on the metallic floor. At this time of day, she knew she would find King Anados in his private study. Normally, no one was allowed to disturb the king when he was in his study, but the two guards at the door weren't about to challenge V'kaya of the Two Blades when she walked up with that expression.
“I quit,” she announced, as she strode into the room.
“I will take your resignation under advisement and will review it sometime in the next two years,” King Anados answered calmly without turning around. He was sitting in a chair which floated about ten feet off the ground, examining one of the thousand books and codexes which lined the walls of the study.
V'kaya walked forward to stand by the king's desk in the middle of the study. “I have fought for your kingdom since I was a girl. I have borne hardships and danger without a complaint. I have sworn to face death for the sake of you and your kingdom. And you've never heard me murmur. But when it comes to teaching Aiden--I quit.”
“So my son has been giving you trouble?” King Anados still didn't turn around. “Well, boys will be boys.”
V'kaya slammed her fist into the desk. “Aiden is only a boy because that is all you have let him be. He's seventeen--the same age my brother was when he was killed, fighting in your service.”
“I do hope you don't plan on bringing up old scores, V'kaya.”
“I've never held that against you and I never will. A death in battle is not the worst fate that could come to a man. And my brother was a man, a warrior. But Aiden is not.” V'kaya was the most powerful warrior King Anados had, despite her age, and it was her work more than any other one thing which had turned the war with the dragons from a loss into a draw. She was indispensable enough that she could get away with saying and doing things no one else could have. It was a privilege she didn't make use of often, but she was doing it now. “I don't know which is worse--that for all his life you pampered him and sheltered him or that, after all that, you plan to throw him into the real world. All his life, you forced him to be a boy and now you expect him overnight to be a man.”
King Anados finally turned around. He looked a good deal like his son--the same tall, lean build, and the same black hair, streaked with red. Like Aiden, there was something both of the scholar and the soldier about him, though these days he seldom saw action himself. He was dressed very simply in a black suit and tie, with nothing but the emblem on this lapel to mark his royal status. “If you are complaining about Aiden's competency, why come to me? I have left the details of his training to you.”
V'kaya glanced up the king's chair and wondered if even she could get away with throwing something at it to bring it back down to ground level. “I have taught him everything you let me teach him. His skill with the flight gear is second-to-none and he can wield a glaive better than almost any man in your army. If he could learn to think more strategically, he would surpass even me as a warrior. I have taught him everything about fighting--and nothing about the world in which we fight. We fight in a kingdom of death and fire and Aiden knows nothing more about it than a baby.” She glanced down and spoke in a lower voice. “Today, he told me he has been investigating the symbol--what he called the fire sigil. With his mind, it is only a matter of time until he discovers what it really means. Do you have any idea what that will do to him, Anados?--what he will do when he comes to understand what this war truly is? It will crush him--it will destroy him.”
“Yes, exactly.” King Anados touched a control on the arm of his chair and it slowly began to descend to the floor. “I suppose you know that behind your back, the soldiers call you V'kaya the Angry. And they call me Anados the Mad. But there is a method to my madness.” He had reached ground level now and faced her directly. It struck V'kaya that she had never really looked in the king's eyes before. He had the same green eyes that Aiden did, but there was something different about them--a different kind of depth that she didn't quite understand.
“You didn't mention one thing Aiden has--something he got from his mother's side of the family, I think--an indomitable will. There was a reason why I've raised Aiden the way I have--why I had you teach him the glaive rather than the sword--and why I have kept him in ignorance of so much. Only one precise combination--the skill of a warrior, the mind of a scholar, an indomitable will, and the innocent soul of a boy, crushed and twisted by cruel reality--only such a person would be capable of wielding this and bringing this whole cursed war to a conclusion.” He touched a button on his desk and the top slid back, revealing something lying in a compartment inside.
V'kaya stared at in amazement. It was a glaive, but one unlike any she had ever seen. The handle was made of a clear crystal, veined with glowing lines of red. The blade was longer and sharper than the average glaive, with a distinct curve like a scimitar. Even from where she stood, she could feel the heat which came from the blade, which glowed with a strange red light. As she stared at it, the blade almost seemed to vanish in the intensity of its light, a light broken and scattered by sparks of electricity which ran up and down its length. At the head, where the blade connected to the handle there was a somewhat elaborate guard and in the center, the glowing orange symbol Aiden had dubbed the fire sigil.
“Is that--a Dragon Glaive? I always thought those were a myth.”
“Yes. At least, this is the prototype Dragon Glaive, the only one ever made--lost at the very beginning of the conflict. It took a good deal of research and the death of a few of our best soldiers to recover it--but I did. The blade is formed of pure dragonsfire, charged with electricity. It's the only one of its kind in existence and could easily best any other weapon we have. And when wielded by one who is both a soldier and a scholar, it has the power to slice not through flesh and bone but through the structure of reality itself.” He glanced up. “You do understand what I mean?”
V'kaya looked at him and then back at the weapon. Suddenly, she did know what he meant. Suddenly, everything he had said made sense and she understood everything. “You're mad!”
“Yes--I thought I already said that.”
She looked into his eyes--and believed him.
*
"At ease, soldier." V'kaya's smile was a little grimmer than her smile usually was (which was saying a lot.) "That's not why I came." She had been carrying the glaive in a case under her arm and now she handed it to him. "This is a special weapon King Anados has obtained for you. It's a Dragon Glaive."
Aiden took the case from her and opened it. V'kaya could see his eyes widen as he saw it. "Father got this for me?"
"It's an old weapon which he had his men dig up somewhere."
Aiden traced the symbol on the hilt. "The fire sigil. This really must be an ancient weapon."
"This is a much more powerful glaive than any you've used so far. I would use the physical power and not try its elemental power until you get used to it."
Aiden turned the glaive over and over in his hand and then sheathed it in the holder on his back. Was it just her imagination or did he stand a little taller? Maybe she had been wrong about him. Maybe he really wasn't just a boy anymore.
"Are you ready?" she asked, sharply, but not quite as sharply as usual. "We're going to hunt high-flyers. That should give you a chance to practice."
Aiden nodded and picked up his flight gear. "My flight gear is all ready. My shield projector is charged. And I've got an extra battery pack--which I may or may not have forgotten earlier," he added a little sheepishly.
"In this job, staying alive is hard enough without that kind of carelessness, Aiden." But she didn't lecture him as much as she normally would have. "Now, come on and show me just what you can do with that new glaive."
High-fliers were young dragons, between one and three years old, much smaller and weaker than other dragons. Battling them would have been relatively simple if it weren't for the fact that they always flew high above the city, never coming near the ground. Not only were dragons much more at home in the air but if the warriors' flight gear was damaged, they would fall to their deaths from this height. But V'kaya and Aiden were both skilled at this kind of work and it was as close to being merely routine as fighting dragons ever would be. That was one of the main reasons why V'kaya had chosen this job as a test. Also, if things got out of hand with the glaive, probably no one would get hurt.
Except them.
That didn't scare V'kaya. Once, she would have said she didn't fear anything. Now, she was beginning to wonder if that was really true.
She held back and let Aiden do most of the fighting. She had told King Anados the truth when she said that Aiden was second-to-known at mastery of the flight gear. And she might have slightly underestimated his skill with the glaive. Even with an ordinary glaive, this wouldn't have been a problem to him--and with the Dragon Glaive, he didn't even have to break a sweat.
About an hour later, Aiden had managed to fell about fifteen of the high flyers. V'kaya was very pleased--though she had no intention of telling Aiden that. His control of the glaive was perfect.
Once the sky seemed clear, the two of them landed for a rest at the top of one of the towers on the outer wall.
"So?" Aiden prompted. "How did I do?"
"Acceptable," V'kaya answered shortly. Probably Aiden knew her well enough to read more into the answer.
Aiden held the glaive, looking at it meditatively. "Such an ancient weapon. Can you imagine what the kingdom was like in the day when it forged?"
"I have better things to do than trying to imagine things."
"Hmm." Aiden kept turning the glaive over and over in his hands. Then he looked out over the city spread out below them. "No sign of any dragons. From here, you could almost imagine that was just an ordinary kingdom--like the Golden Age before the dragons came."
"And still you chase these fairy tales, Aiden."
"These fairy tales are our heritage. This kingdom does not have a strong present or much hope in the future--our only light is in the past.”
For a moment, neither one said anything. They sat in silence staring down over the city.
It was Aiden who broke the silence. "Why do you fight, V'kaya? Why keep up this endless battle?"
V'kaya shrugged. Why did she fight? To avenge her brother? To protect the kingdom? To prove herself? She wasn't used to self-analysis. "Everyone has to do something with their life. Can you see me doing something else for a living?"
For just a second, both of them smiled at the thought of V'kaya of the Two Blades working in a civilian job.
"That's just the thing," said Aiden thoughtfully. "People do live--even here, in this kingdom, underneath the shadow of the dragons--people still live. People are born and grow up and get married and raise families--just like in any normal kingdom. Even here, where they know any moment their life may be cut short by a dragon's teeth, people still live. And, for the moment, they're happy." Aiden looked up at her. "That's why I fight--why, one way or another, I'm going to bring this war to a conclusion. Our kingdom was founded to be something better than this. These people deserve a good life--I can't let all the promises of our kingdom remain unfilled." He looked away and stared out over the city. "You'll laugh at me for saying this, V'kaya, but I love this kingdom. Do you know what it's like to love something?"
V'kaya looked at Aiden for a long moment. And then she made several split-moment decisions. "Enough of this. Let me see that glaive a moment."
Aiden was used to V'kaya squashing him when he started talking like that. He stood up and handed the glaive to her. She held it in her hands, balancing it carefully. And then, with all her strength, she threw it down towards the ground far below them. There was a patch of dragonsfire directly below. An impact from this distance would cause an explosion which would destroy the glaive. Fortunately, this wasn't a populated part of town so no one else would be hurt.
But she had underestimated Aiden. Without a second glance at her, he dove off the tower, plummeting through the air. As he dropped, he placed a hand on his belt, projecting a shield around the glaive. It wasn't enough to keep it from falling, but it did mess up the physics quite a bit. The glaive and Aiden fell downward together, shooting closer to the ground. V'kaya was holding her breath but she didn't have time to interfere even if she could have.
At almost the last possible second, Aiden caught the handle of the glaive and at the same instant, the wings of his flight gear shot out, breaking his fall and then propelling him back upwards.
V'kaya stood and waited as Aiden returned back to her position. He held the glaive in one hand and looked at her with a cold, unblinking gaze. "Why, V'kaya?"
V'kaya stared at him. She had been wrong him. He wasn't a boy anymore. And that was all the more reason... "I refuse to be a counter in your father's mad game."
Aiden returned the glaive to its holder. "What are you talking about?"
"Aiden--I have been your teacher, I am your fellow-soldier, and I would like to believe I am your friend. As all three, I am telling you this--leave this kingdom. Go beyond the horizons--there are dozens of kingdoms out there which would pay highly for a warrior of your skill; or, if you prefer it, a scholar of your insight. Go--and forget that you ever lived here in the shadow of the dragons."
He landed on the tower beside her. "You know I will never do that, V'kaya."
She gave one her characteristic grim smiles. "Well, don't say I didn't warn you. Come on."
"Where are we going?" asked Aiden as he rose to follow her through the air.
"I've made up my mind. I'm going to tell you the truth. I hope you can forgive me."
Silently, the two flew across the city, their flight gear making little noise as they made their way. They were flying over the old part of the city. This had been decimated by the dragons early in the war and there was still so much dragonsfire that it wasn't safe for people and so it had been sealed off. Aiden had never been here before. At the center of a sprawling complex of ruined buildings, at the top of a large hill, was an octagonal building with a round roof.
"Make sure your shield projector is on," V'kaya warned as they dropped. "This place will kill you otherwise. Even if we aren't here for very long."
Aiden nodded. He was quiet. He could sense that something was different about V'kaya.
They landed on the board porch before the doors of the strange building. V'kaya raised her arms. As a member of the Elite Royal Guards, she wore metal armbands on her wrists. She held up her arms--and the bands glowed slightly and there was an answering glow in the door. For just an instant, an orange light shown from the door, outlining a symbol--the same symbol from the glaive--and then the doors slid open.
"Only those of us in the Elite Guard have access to this place," she commented as they walked through the door. "For all purposes, this is the place where this kingdom began. This building was built by your ancestor--Aiden I. That man there--" V'kaya nodded towards the statue which stood directly opposite the door. It was partially destroyed and head lay at the statue's feet. Still, even in this state, one could trace a family resemblance in the head to both Anados and Aiden II.
"What is this place?" Aiden looked around him.
"What does look like?" V'kaya stood in front of the statue and cross her arms.
Aiden walked slowly around the room. The walls were lined with huge glass tanks. Most of them were broken and the glass was scattered on the ground, crunching beneath Aiden's boots as he walked. A few were still intact and filled with some kind of liquid. Between the tanks, there were various screens, some of which were still active, displaying strange diagrams of intertwining lines. In the center of the room, behind the statue, was a complex machine which glowed with red light.
"This is a laboratory." Aiden walked up to one of the screens. "This diagram--these are genomes. And these tanks are incubation pods." He turned away and walked towards the center of the room. "But this thing--it's--some kind of generator? A power source?" He walked slowly back to the front of the room. “Something--something was created here.”
V'kaya nodded and then, with an abrupt motion, her hand shot out and grasped a small lizard which had slithered by on the railing behind her. She held it up with a grim smile. “There are still a few of these hanging around this place. When they looked this way, they weren't half bad.”
Aiden stared at her and at the lizard for several seconds without speaking. Then he took an abrupt step back. “Wait. It can't be. You're saying--”
V'kaya nodded. “Yes, Aiden. Here. In this room. This is where the dragons were created.” She released the lizard so she could fold her arms. She spoke calmly but didn't meet Aiden's eyes as she talked. “Back then, this land was just a loose assortment of city-states with no central leader. Your ancestor--Aiden I--had no kingdom; only this city, the mind of a scholar, and a good deal of ambition. In order to forge a kingdom for himself, he used this laboratory and began breaking apart to the two sacred bounds--the two fundamental things: the code of life, the genome, and the code of the cosmos, the atom. Once he had mastered his science, it was a comparatively easy thing to do what he did--take some harmless lizards and by changing their genetic code turn them into engines of war--animals powered by the energy of the atom itself--walking, flying, living fighting atomic engines. It's no wonder with an army like that that he could conquer all the cities around here, turning them into his kingdom. And if all had gone as he planned, his war would have stretched farther and farther, turning the kingdom into an empire. That symbol--what you called the fire sigil--was the symbol of his project, the Draco Project.” She glanced down. “Aiden succeeded. A little too well. He had created the ultimate fighting machine, a living one. What he hadn't counted on was how the dragons become more powerful the older they grew. Suddenly, he and his soldiers could no longer control the dragons--who ended up breaking free. They were animals but not natural creatures and so without natural inclinations. They stay in this kingdom because they have no reason to go elsewhere. They kill and destroy because that it was Aiden I created them to do, even though it doesn't benefit them in any way. ” She looked up again, though still not meeting his eyes. “And that is how this kingdom was born. There was no Golden Age, no time before the coming of the dragons. This whole realm was built on Aiden's aggression and the power of the dragons and the blood of those they killed. The story of the Golden Age was invented later by the royal family to help keep the common people content. Everyone in the palace knows the truth--and I think most of the common people do too, even if they accept the lie for the sake of their peace of mind.”
For the first time, V'kaya actually looked Aiden in the face. He was looking at the ground.
For just a moment, there was silence. Then he raised his head and asked, "If everyone knows all that--then why did no one ever tell me? And why did you tell me now?" There were traces of pain and shock in his face, but his voice was cold and hard. There was a strange calm to him. As she looked into his eyes, V'kaya couldn't help think that he looked more like his father than ever before. That fact rather unnerved her.
"I'm telling you now because you're seventeen. It's only a matter of time until you find out one way or another, and I thought it would be best to get it over with. As for why I never told you before--why no one ever told you--it is because of your father. I was ordered--as were your other teacher before me--to tell you the lie and never, under any circumstances, to let you find out the truth."
Aiden's clenched his fist. "But why? And where does the Dragon Glaive fit into all this?"
"It was forged by your ancestor. He dreamed of an army of flying knights, riding dragons, armed with a weapon almost as powerful as the dragons themselves. Even though only one glaive was actually produced. That much I can tell you--but as for why--"
V'kaya had lived for years as a warrior. She had faced death and worse than death countless times. She would have said that she feared nothing and would have been willing to duel anyone who contested the fact. And yet, now, looking into Aiden's face, she realized she was afraid, afraid of answering his question. She wasn't sure what he would do when he understood. "If you want to know that, you'll have to ask your father." Aiden might not believe the truth coming from her, anyway. "Even though I have access to this place, the sensors will have alerted the king that I was here and I imagine Anados has already pieced together why."
Aiden nodded. "Then let's go talk to him."
V'kaya couldn't help noticing that Aiden was giving her commands, which usually she would object to. But that was all in the past. She was no longer the teacher and he the student. And in a few hours it might not matter anymore anyway.
Without another word, they exited the laboratory, the door automatically sealing behind them. Without a backwards look, Aiden soared into the sky, with V'kaya close behind.
It only took them a couple minutes to get back to the palace complex. As they flew over, they saw there were about thirty of the guards standing at attention in the yard. As they dropped, she saw that King Anados stood at the front of the group, his arms crossed. He still wore his suit and tie, but over this, he wore a black cape and he was carrying a glaive in his left hand.
Like a stone, Aiden dropped to the ground, barely sticking the landing. V'kaya landed behind him, placing her hands on the handles of her blades. No matter what happened, she was going to fight on Aiden's side. If there was a fight.
"Why?" Aiden folded his arms and stared at Anados.
"I see V'kaya has betrayed us." Anados spoke with perfect calmness.
"As Aiden's teacher, my duty is to teach him," said V'kaya. "That's what I am loyal to."
Aiden didn't even seem to realize that she had spoken. "Father. Why? Why didn't you tell me any of this?"
"You believe everything, of course? Everything V'kaya told you? You still really are as naive as a schoolboy."
"I saw the evidence with my own eyes. Besides, it's the only thing that makes sense. But if it's not true--what's your story?"
Anados shook his head. He was smiling. "I have no story. You have found the truth at last. This is a kingdom built on lies. You are the child of a mad tyrant who tore apart the sacred bounds of reality to fulfill his own selfish ambition. The shadow which lies over this kingdom is the shadow of our family's sins."
Aiden clenched his fist and threw it back, impatiently. "I don't care about the rhetoric. I just want to know--why? And why the glaive?"
"Isn't it obvious?" The king laughed. "Tell me, Aiden--how do you feel? Knowing that your own father lied to you all these years? Knowing that the kingdom to which you have sworn loyalty is a lie? You now know the truth--and the truth will drive you mad." He took a step forward. His eyes were burning with a strange intensity. "Are you angry? Disillusioned? Embittered?"
"What?" Aiden seemed more confused than anything else.
"What is left for you to do now, Aiden? You have dedicated yourself to saving this kingdom--now you know that this kingdom is irredeemable. So what are you going to live for now? What is left--except--destruction!"
"Destruction? Father, what are you talking about?"
"Your glaive--didn't V'kaya explain?--when wielded by one who is both a soldier and a scholar it has the power to slice, not through flesh and bone, but through the structure of reality itself."
"The structure of reality--" Aiden pulled the glaive and stared it at it-- "Dragonsfire. Of course. The dragons derive their power from atomic energy. So this glaive has that same power--the power to split the atom itself.”
Anados nodded and laughed quietly. “So you understand. By wielding that glaive, you have the power to create nuclear fission--generating a concussive force great enough to wipe this entire cursed kingdom from the world. You will fulfill your destiny and bring redemption to this kingdom--by blotting it all out. One blow with enough force and skill, and the kingdom and the dragons and all the sins of the past will be extinguished in one glorious blast of absolution.” He spread his arms out and laughed again, a little louder. “Let your pain and hatred be your guide. Strike me down and then unleash your power and bring this story to an end.”
For just a second, Aiden seemed frozen. And then, holding the glaive firmly, he rushed forward, towards his father. King Anados laughed louder this time and pulled his own glaive.
V'kaya stood her ground, her hands still on her sword, in case anyone else interfered. Otherwise, this was between Aiden and his father. For reasons she would have been hard-pressed to explain, she had not wanted this end to the story--she had not wanted Aiden to become an agent of destruction. But it had been inevitable. And perhaps, in the end, it would be the best thing for everyone.
For just a few moments, Aiden and Anados spared with their glaives. But the outcome was certain. Anados might have been an equal to Aiden once, but not now--it had been too long since he had been an active soldier. Besides, the power of Aiden's glaive would have tipped the balance in his favor even if they had been evenly matched to begin with. It was only a matter of a minute or two before Aiden's blade had knocked the head from his father's glaive. With a twist, he knocked the handle out of Anados's hand.
With a quick motion, he returned his glaive to his holder and rushed forward. His father gave one strange glance at him and seemed to collapse. But Aiden was already on top of him. He caught and supported him with one arm, while he pinioned his arms behind his back with the other.
“Quickly,” Aiden called out, looking up at the guards who still stood at attention, watching the altercation, “bring me some rope--or a straightjacket, if there's one in the palace.”
The captain of the guards had been watching everything with a strange, stoical calm, but now he seemed to come to himself. “We can't do that--he's the king--”
Aiden stared at him. “He's mad. Did you hear what he was saying? Did you hear his laugh? Look in his eyes, man. The king has gone insane. We have to get him contained and inside before he hurts himself.”
“But--but he's the king--” repeated the captain, a little helplessly.
Aiden drew himself up, still holding Anados's arms behind him. “With my father's mental breakdown, the leadership of the kingdom passes to me--I am the one you are bound to obey. And if that means nothing to you, let me ask you this: do you really dare to challenge the wielder of the Dragon Glaive and V'kaya of the Two Blades?”
V'kaya stepped forward to stand beside him, still with her hands on the handles of her swords.
The guard nodded and started fire orders to the other soldiers. In a few moments, they had bound Anados (who seemed in a sort of conscious stupor) and took him inside.
“Bring Gaius from the North Tower,” Aiden told the captain of the guards as they led him away. “He has had some success with dealing with the mad before. And he can at least advise on further action even if he can't do anything himself.”
“Of course, sir.” The captain bowed and left--leaving Aiden and V'kaya alone in the courtyard.
Aiden stood staring after the others for a moment and then turned to V'kaya. “My father is mad. And sad. And bad. The sadness and badness we can't do anything about. But I hope, with the proper treatment, we can bring him back from madness. I-I only wish he had told me the truth earlier. That's why he went mad--brooding alone on all this for too long. Maybe if I could have shared that burden--”
“Perhaps,” said V'kaya, in a voice that was (slightly) less brusque than usual. “But I fear the damage was done before you were old enough to understand. This scheme of his--to turn you into an agent of destruction--he must have come up with it while you were still young.”
Aiden nodded. “And there may be too much of his own pride and willfulness in his madness for us to treat it. But we are going to try.” He took a step forward and confronted V'kaya directly. “Because no matter what he has done or what he is, he is my father--and I love him--and I will do anything in my power to bring back his sanity--even if he has been mad all my life.” He turned away and spread his arms out, encompassing the whole area around them. “And this kingdom--this kingdom of lies and death and fire--is my kingdom--and I love it--and I will do anything in my power to bring back the Golden Age which never happened, to bring things back to the way they never were.”
V'kaya looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“Do you remember what I said to you up on the tower? About how I wanted to end this war with the dragons for the sake of the people of this kingdom--because I loved this kingdom? None of that has changed. This kingdom may have been born by Aiden I's ambition and cruelty but that doesn't mean it has to end in the same thing. I said then that we had no light in the future but only the light of the past. That was wrong. There is no light in our past--which is all the more reason to create a light in the future. And don't you see--now we have one.” He drew his glaive again. “Because man made the dragons, man can unmake them. Now that I have a pure sample of dragonsfire and an understanding of what the dragons are and where they came from, I finally have some hope of defeating them. It may not be easy, but I believe it is possible.”
V'kaya walked behind him. “Even with that glaive and your scholarship, it's going to be hard to destroy the dragons.”
“I know. And I will be counting on the help of you and the other warriors. It will be a battle. And maybe I'm wrong that we can win it. But I'm not going to give up without a fight.”
“Hah. Just because you have a new weapon, you act like a full-grown soldier. You still don't even begin to understand the ways of war and you're going to be lucky not to get eaten up, even with my help. Even if you are royalty--”
“Yes, yes,” said Aiden quickly.
He had heard this speech before.
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