Iduna (15 page)

Iduna’s body floated down the river. She caught on a tree branch and blinked into the sunlight. The burn on her back dragged her into consciousness, and she used the branch to pull herself to the shore. The branch felt odd and scaly. Her back was swept with alternating waves of heat and cold. All sound felt muffled and distant. The pain was unbearable.

She passed out.

…

Iduna woke with a start. Her cheek was lying in a pool of squishy mud, under trees at the edge of a river. She was sprawled on her stomach, a tree branch poking her there. The night sky was full of stars. That scent—she knew that scent.

“You know, your breath is very distinctive.” She worked to push herself up out of the mud without pressing deeper into it.

“Stay still,” Lexonia ordered.

The words had barely left the dragon’s mouth when pain flashed through Iduna.

“Your wound is still fresh.”

Choking back her scream, Iduna clenched her teeth and grimaced at the dragon. She ground out, “You mean the wound you gave me.”

The dragon sighed. “I can make it better.”

“How?” she asked.

“My saliva will heal it. Complete healing will take a while, but this will be a dramatic improvement.”

“You want to spit on me?” Another wave of pain hit her. “Oh, Yorin, just do it! Do it!” She felt the rough abrasion of its tongue on her back and grimaced. The feeling that her skin was tearing apart waned and disappeared. She felt whole and soothed. She sighed in relief.

Lexonia laid the thick part of her tail down next to Iduna and commanded, “Roll on.”

Ready to follow orders, she did exactly that. Lexonia slid Iduna from her tail to her broad tiled back.

“Hold on.”

The dragon walked awkwardly on land, aware of its poorly balanced charge. Lexonia lay down gently—not in the mud, Iduna noted absently—and they rested again.

After a while, her curiosity overwhelmed her exhaustion. She needed answers. Who knew when the sounds would start again?

“We have to get away from the sounds. Help me figure out how to escape them,” she said.

“There is no escape,” Lexonia said.

“That can't be true. You must think.”

“I am tired,” Lexonia replied.

Iduna never thought she'd hear a dragon whine. “You owe me,” Iduna said.

Lex was impassive. Her head lay on the ground.

“You owe your mate and child,” Iduna said.

Lex closed her eyes.

Iduna had guessed right. She pressed on. “They seem to be immune. I was immune. We don't have to keep suffering. There must be a way out.”

Lex considered her words. “You say that you weren't affected before. Before what? What happened to you?”

Iduna had a choice to make here. She was going to have to admit to spying on Lex's family. She braced herself on Lex's back, placing her feet between some of the scales and grabbing nearby handholds.

“My people are being enslaved by a dark magic that we don't understand, let alone know how to fight. I need to save them.”

“Get to the point, little stick.”

“The people on a neighboring island sent me here to learn. I think I am supposed to learn from your kind.”

“Of course.” The dragon was old and, though full of self-loathing, still retained pride in her species.

“I followed two dragons and watched them.”

“Did you hurt them, stick?”

It felt like a light steam was seething from between all the dragon's scales. Iduna flushed with heat.

“No!”

“Hmm.”

“The older one, Rubino, seemed to be teaching his son.”

At this, a tear escaped the dragon. The droplet bubbled and steamed over the scales of Lex’s muzzle.

“They are fine,” Iduna reassured. “Well, actually your son has a couple rips in his wing from a pack of hungry beasts.” She got no further as Lex stood up abruptly. She slid down the dragon’s back and grasped for new holds. Secure again, for the moment, she said, “They are fine!”

Lex swung around her head and was now in Iduna’s face, searching for truth.

“They are fine. You, however, are not fine. We need to figure this out.”

Lexonia bared her teeth in a hissing growl.

“Rubino was teaching your son how to breathe fire. When I tried to follow his instructions, I started hearing that horrible sound.” Her words broke through Lexonia’s anger.

“You can't breathe fire. Why would you try?” Lex was confused.

Tired, Iduna reached for the dirt and leaves with her abilities, building a pathetic replica of a tree, the dirt molding into a trunk and branches.

Lex looked mildly impressed. “That is interesting. But it's not fire. Sticks can't breathe fire. Why did you try?”

“When Rubino was telling Esten what to do, he mentioned breathing into a place deep within. I have been touched by the dark power that is enslaving my people. It left in me this hollowness, this pit in my chest that fills and overflows with emotion. I guess I was hoping that Rubino's directions might touch that hollowness and get rid of it.”

Lex exhaled a puff of steam. “I don’t remember anything. My past is a blur. I’ve lost everything.” The dragon glared at Iduna.

“Maybe I did something wrong,” Iduna said.

“Or maybe that's just what happens to a stick when she tries to breathe fire.”

The conversation was tiring after all that they'd been through. Iduna was injured now and blanched at the thought of the sounds starting again in her present physical condition. The thought was motivating. “I can't possibly know if a 'stick' can breathe fire, but you could let me know if I did something wrong.”

Lex laid her head back down grudgingly. “Okay. What did you do?”

“I stilled my mind, focused on the heaviness between my eyes, breathed in slowly, finding the deepest spot of inhalation. On the next slow inhale, I pulled the air down just beyond the deepest spot. That was when I began hearing the sounds. I can't believe I couldn't hear them before!”

“You are missing something.”

“Good. So it's not just being a ‘stick.’” She rubbed one of the scales absently and cringed with the movement. She was still sore. “I can't help but remember that you've breathed fire recently, though it's not exactly fire, is it?”

“Each dragon's fire is different,” Lex responded automatically, gazing into her enfeebled mind looking for the hidden piece.

“What did you do before you burned me to a crisp with that cold flame of yours?” she asked.

Lex looked embarrassed. “I could have done worse … in the old days.” Lex tapped her claws in what Iduna thought was an exceedingly human gesture. “It's all so automatic now. I go through the steps Rubino described. But there is something more.”

“How long do we have until the sound starts again?”

“It's unpredictable. It could be weeks or seconds.”

“Great.”

Freya watched her prisoner paddle their small boat to the dock in Okeenos during the dark stillness of night. The tide was out, and the boat was lower than the dock. She hummed Vilir’s tune while her prisoner stood up on his toes, stretching to loop the line of rope around a post.

She'd been looking forward to this moment.

She was finally in Okeenos. She would find Iduna and bring her back to Vilir for punishment. Then her husband would be free, and they could go back to life as usual. The thought made her realize that she didn't want to go back to her previous life. She had been a fool.

Now was the time.

She crept up behind Minh. When he turned, she embraced him with one arm. With her other arm she plunged the dagger into his chest, between his ribs and straight through his heart. As she looked him in the face, taking in every nuance of his surprise and pain, she whispered, “Thank you for showing me my power.”

His legs lost their strength, and his eyes became flat, unmoving. When he slipped downward, she angled his body so that it fell quietly over the side. There was a single splash.

She wiped the dagger against her leg without thought. She was more alive than ever.

She clambered up the spikes in the dock piling left there for other low-tide arrivals. Did Iduna climb up these same spikes? Not likely. Lucky and spoiled Iduna. It had taken Freya four days to get here in no wind. She still remembered the sight of Iduna zipping off in the high wind. In contrast, Freya’s wind had been weak and dissipated to nothing.

Fortunately she'd known how to motivate her prisoner. Her prisoner. She loved the feeling of control. She would find Iduna and make Iduna her new prisoner.

The night sky was empty. She wanted high ground. Surveying the wharf, she made her way to the buildings facing the dock. She climbed to the roof and lay down to sleep, wrapping a tarp from the boat around her.

She'd had to stay awake while on board to keep an eye on her prisoner. Now she could rest for a little while. Just a little while. She slept with her hand curled around the hilt of the dagger. It felt good.

Iduna and Lex would talk back and forth until one of them fell asleep, then they'd start up again as soon as the other had the will to wake them both up to start anew. They had a sense of urgency combined with deep exhaustion and had been going round and round for hours.

“Try it again,” Iduna said.

Lex exhaled a sparkling silver cloud with fiery edges of dancing blue, like the blue of thick ice.

“That was better,” Iduna observed.

“It was.” Lex seemed to expand slightly with pride.

“What did you do differently?”

“I don't know.”

“What were you thinking about?”

“Honestly I was thinking about my son. I can't stop thinking about him now.”

“What do you usually think about?”

“I'm usually too tired to think. Talking with you is forcing me to think. I don't exactly like it.” Lex bared her teeth, hostile and annoyed.

“That was it!” Her eyes lit up with excitement. Iduna sat up and felt only a twinge of pain. Her back was getting better.

“Care to share?”

“Your mate mentioned focusing on some feeling. Maybe your singular focus on your son is creating some constant feeling to draw on. Now that I think about it, he didn't say what the feeling was.”

“Oh, yes, I know!” Lex closed her eyes, and her scales seemed to glow with a blue light. “Rubino, my love.”

“Fantastic!” Iduna perked up even more, happy for Lex and expectant of a solution. Finally.

Iduna stilled abruptly. “It's coming again.”

“What? … Rubino, Rubino, I remember you!” The dragon's focus was inward, reveling in her memory.

“Lex! What is the feeling?” she cried with urgency. Iduna's skin started to crawl like a family of centipedes were creeping over her.

“There are a few different ones that we use.” Lex was practically purring.

Iduna pulled her knees to her chin and began rubbing her shins vigorously. “For Yorin's sake, just give me one!”

“Just one? Well, let me see …”

“Lex!” Iduna didn’t have time. “Now!”

“Love works well. Think about someone you love. Their beautiful scales, the glory of their fire.”

Rolling her eyes in exasperation, Iduna turned her focus inward and began breathing deeply, hoping to breathe away the itching, crawling feeling. She brought the picture of her parents to mind. The image was fuzzy with age, but there was one memory sharper than the others.

She pushed herself to remember.

Her mother on one side, her father on the other, each of them holding one of her hands. They were walking slowly through a grassy field. Every few steps they would lift her from the ground and swing her high in the air between them. Sometimes she would skip to encourage them. They swung her high, her arms secure in their grasp.

She felt calm and happy.

“That is amazing,” Iduna said.

“Yes, it is,” Lex was sitting contentedly, her tail wrapped around her tucked legs.

Iduna didn't know if it was her or Lex, but Lex looked more blue than gray now. The respite from the torturous sound was sweet, and the technique had left Iduna feeling light and hopeful. She didn’t have answers to all her questions, but she had finally had a breakthrough.

“Let's get you back to your family,” Iduna said as she stood and began walking toward the center of the island and the mountain.

Lex stood and tried her wings with a couple experimental flaps. She couldn’t get off the ground.

“It's a long walk, but we'll get there. We'll get our strength back now that we don't have to worry about the sounds.”

They began making their way awkwardly through the brush, with the ground getting steeper as they approached the mountain that rose high into the mist.

Iduna had been thinking about the experience, going through the steps of breathing fire. She felt that she'd learned something, but she didn't know what yet. They were now immune to the sounds of the island. If they started to hear them, they both went through the routine of focusing on a good feeling, then doing the meditative breathing. Those were the steps that Rubino had outlined for breathing fire. Yet neither of them had exhaled the smallest wisp of a flame.

When they sat to rest briefly, Iduna brought up the subject. “Lex, I didn't breathe fire.”

“Of course you didn't, stick,” she said with warm fondness. The experience had changed Lexonia into a much more cordial and appreciative companion.

“I know. I know. Sticks can't breathe fire, but neither did you. You went through Rubino’s description of how to breathe fire, but you didn't do it.”

“Ah, yes, there is a difference. Recall that the last step is a smooth, forceful exhale.”

“Smooth and forceful? That seems like a contradiction in terms.”

Lexonia raised her wings slightly in a shrug. “Fire is personal.” She got up and continued the gradual climb, leaving Iduna to her thoughts.

…

Rubino knew as soon as he saw Lex that she was free of the island’s song. They huddled together, mates and child. Iduna stayed beyond the clearing where the waterfall had left a large pool, just on the edges, giving them some privacy. She was still in awe of the dragons and had never thought she would meet them in her lifetime.

“Iduna, thank you. Thank you for bringing our family back together,” Rubino said.

“You're welcome. We helped each other. I'm also grateful for you sharing the secret of fire-breathing with me. If it hadn't been for you all, I would still be running until exhaustion each time the wind shifted and howled on this island.”

“Well, we didn't exactly decide to share the secret with you,” Rubino reproached lightly, “but I'm immensely glad you learned it.”

“I still don't breathe fire.”

Lex and Rubino exchanged a look, then turned inscrutable faces to Iduna. “Fire is personal. We would like to do something for you. What do you need?”

Iduna didn't feel like she had the answer to Lex’s question, but, with no other direction, she decided it was time to go back to Okeenos and see what Akio and Kai had to say. After having lost control with her first experiment, she didn't want to do any more experimenting on this island.

“I don't suppose you could give me a ride to Okeenos?”