The Nothing: A Book of the Between (38 page)

“Lyssa!” she screamed. “Go, now!”

The oncoming wave hit her with the force of a battering ram, sweeping her off her feet, pounding her mercilessly.
Cold water. Not gold.
She called on the magic to form a shield around herself and then reached out for the others. No trace of Lyssa or the griffyn, no matter how hard she searched. Poe she found and shielded. And then, still unable to find Lyssa, she shifted, easily, back into dragon form.

The water was a wonder, invigorating and wild. It made her conscious of every scale. The sensation of life was almost more than she could contain, infusing every part of her with energy and vitality, healing the wounds from battle. Laughter and great joy bubbled up, and for a moment, she almost forgot—her many dead, the ravages of the Nothing, Lyssa at the mercy of the roiling waters.

Clearing her head, she resumed the search for the little girl. A door stood open at the center of the Pool, not her green door but one of Lyssa’s making. Water poured through it and into the Cave of Dreams. Looking through the open doorway, she saw the flood, thick at first with sludge and debris, begin little by little to clear.

Lyssa was inside the Cave, perched at the top of the highest mound of dream matter, beside the dead guardian. She held the griffyn in her arms. The water lapped at her toes. Vivian half waded, half swam over and felt the child climb onto her back. Through the door and out into the pool she carried the child. Then, lifting her wings, she rode the air up and onto the plain. Dragons stepped back to make room.

Teheren, last of the Old Ones, stepped forward to meet her.

Vivian set Lyssa gently on the ground and shifted into human. So easy now. Once it had been a wracking change, often against her will. Now it was as easy as breathing. Lyssa flung herself at Zee, who caught her up in one arm but still held his sword ready.

Vivian did not kneel before Teheren. King he might be, ancient beyond belief, but she was the Three in One and would not grant him greater rank.

“You have taken what is not yours,” he said, gesturing at the water still flowing into the Cave of Dreams.

“I have taken nothing. I freed what was locked away, awakened what was sleeping. Will you punish me for this?”

“This is not mine to say. The laws are older than I,” he said formally. Turning to the dragons spread out before him, he spoke in the Ancient Tongue. “What shall we do with the interlopers, my people? Do we follow the laws? Offer them mercy? Or punishment?”

Through all the channels ran a litany of hunger and a long, simmering anger. But the Warrior’s sword was bright and sharp, and the Three In One had restored the water.
What know we of laws? We are a free people.

Vivian spoke in the same language, wondering as she did so how she had come to know it. “You have killed my companions, and yet I am willing to forgive. We have given you back your land. Will you not let us go now in peace?”

It was true. She felt the earth warming into life beneath her feet. In the distance, the golden river flowed, its banks already green with the return of grass. Overhead, the sky cleared to cerulean blue with a few fluffy white clouds. Something moved in the distance. Improbable, but her senses told her it was a deer.

Another thread rose through the dragon channels, this one of a silent wonder and a growing exultation. This was more like the land Aidan had promised them. They would bathe in molten gold, feast on fat deer. And the intruders had wrought this by some magic. One and all, they bent their knees in submission.

Teheren kept his feet and held her gaze. “You speak the Ancient Tongue.”

“I guess?”

He was a beautiful man but lacked a sense of humor. His face remained serious, his eyes intent. “These are wild and untaught. They know nothing of order or of laws, but they have spoken and the law would agree. The pool is not out of bounds to any of the ancient blood. If you speak the tongue, you must run deep. And if the little one is under your protection, then she, too, is permitted.” He frowned down at Poe, still playing in the water. “I know nothing of flightless waterfowl.”

The basin was now full of diamond-bright water. Zee, looking at it, shielded his eyes, but to Vivian, it was life. If one bathed in the water every day, there would be no need for food or other sustenance.

“Will you stay?” Teheren pulled her attention back. He had shifted into regular speech, and his eyes and words were for her.

“What?”

“Stay here. Help me teach them. It will take a very long time to civilize them.” He was very bright, more than human. To stay in this place, with access to the water of life, to rest, to fly the skies as a dragon…

She looked up at Zee, scarred and weary, holding the child protectively, his eyes full of loss and love. Her heart turned over in her breast. There was nothing that she wanted in all the worlds more than to be in his arms, but she couldn’t go to him, not yet.

“Unfortunately, I’m sort of busy. Not done saving the worlds and all.” Just a small gesture with her right hand and the door into the Cave closed and vanished. “The Pool is yours, and the responsibility for the dragons of the Between.”

Improbably, Teheren bowed his proud head in acknowledgement. “There is one thing more.” He turned and beckoned, and the baby dragon dogging his heels came forward, wide golden eyes curious and solemn. “The choice is yours,” he said, and the little creature swung her head around to look at him with a flicker of fear. There was something different about her. Something familiar.

She pressed close against Teheren, eyeing Vivian and Zee. The raven had been circling, but now it fluttered down to the ground in front of the baby dragon, staring in turn out of coal-black eyes. Poe came out of the pool, shook himself, and took up his watch-penguin pose beside the raven.

A rippling of scales, a changing of skin, and where there had been a dragon, a baby girl sat on the grass. Her eyes were gray. Scars marred her right cheek. A faint pattern of scales lingered on her collarbones and shoulders. She didn’t cry or fuss, just sat quietly with eyes that held too much intelligence for a child so young.

Zee’s breath caught in his throat; his face went pale.

“Aidan’s child,” Teheren said unnecessarily. His voice was sad but edged with the clear thought processes of a dragon. “Aidan expected a Warrior Son who would help her destroy all dragonkind. When the baby was born a girl, she tried to kill it. I intervened. I still know not whether I did right or wrong in this.”

A chill ran through Vivian, head to toe. What might such a child turn out to be?

But.

“The child is also Zee’s,” she said. “And her birth is not her doing.”

Teheren looked to Zee. “I would not ask you to commit the act, but I will give you the choice whether she should live or die.”

Vivian saw horror in Zee’s eyes but also love and wonder. He swallowed. “Vivian is right. The child did not choose her mother.” After a difficult moment, he added, “Or her father, for that matter. She deserves a chance.”

“So be it.” The dragon king inclined his head to Zee in a gesture of respect. “I advise that you leave her here with me. There is no knowing what she may become. It would be easier to manage her here.”

“What’s the baby’s name?” Lyssa asked, squirming out of Zee’s arms. “Why is she naked? Can I give her a bottle?”

“She is nameless and so shall remain,” Teheren answered. As if the decision was a foregone conclusion. “A name would only grant her greater power.”

Lyssa plumped down on the ground and pulled the baby onto her lap. Still unsmiling, the little one leaned back against warm flesh with a little sigh. Poe stalked over, inspected both children with his inscrutable gaze, and then took up a flank position. The raven hopped over to the other side.

“She’s family,” Vivian said, her eyes on Zee. “Family sticks together, no matter what.”

“You’re sure?” Zee asked.

She smiled backing answer, then walked over to pick up the baby. The child stiffened. The scars pulled up the right side of her lip into a macabre grin. But Vivian sensed no well of magic, no darkness, and after a minute, with a little sigh, the baby softened and leaned her forehead against Vivian’s shoulder. One hand stole up and closed around a lock of hair.

“This is a mistake,” Teheren said. “Maybe—”

“I have claimed her,” Zee said, and Vivian recognized that undercurrent of danger. She braced herself for a battle.

Teheren must have heard it, too. He sighed. “I fear you will regret this choice. She is safer here, and the world is safer with her here.”

“I doubt she was born to be locked away,” Vivian said. “We need a blanket. And she looks hungry.”

Zee nodded. “Let’s go home.”

First, Vivian made a door into Surmise for Isobel. The instant it opened, Landon charged through. His face was haggard, his eyes wild, a drawn sword in his hand.

“Landon,” Isobel cried.

A sunrise dawned on his face as he caught her in his arms, burying his face in her hair. His shoulders shook, and his voice was broken when he said, “I thought I’d lost you.”

“I’m sorry, but I had to go.” She freed herself from his embrace, gently but firmly, and tilted her head to look up into his face. Vivian had never seen her mother’s gaze so clear and direct. “I’m not a child. You take risks, I take risks. That’s how it works.”

Landon wiped his eyes. “I was trying to protect you.”

She shook her head. “You can’t always shelter me. I’ve realized I can’t stay cooped up and safe until I die.”

“You’ve changed,” he said, tracing a bruise that marked her cheekbone.

“I grew up. About time, don’t you think?”

Lips curving into a smile, Landon took her hand in his and kissed it. “It looks good on you. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

Isobel stopped him with a kiss.

Vivian dashed tears from her cheeks, her heart full to bursting with emotions she didn’t fully understand. The baby started to cry, and Isobel broke off the kiss and turned to them. “I know you can’t stay,” she said, “but you’ll be back.”

There was a note in her voice that rang like prophecy. “Of course.” Vivian caught her mother in a hug. “We’ll be in and out all the time, I imagine.”

Lyssa tugged on Isobel’s hand. “Me, too?”

Isobel laughed and bent to scoop the little girl up into her arms. “Of course you, too. Give me a hug.” Lyssa flung her arms around her neck and smacked her on the cheek. “And Bob?”

“Like you could go anywhere without him. And Gracie too, if you like.”

Lyssa looked down at the griffyn cub. “Gracie should stay with you,” she said in a small but determined voice. “Because I’ve got Bob and the baby and Poe to take care of.”

“It’s going to get awfully big,” Isobel said, looking alarmed.

“All the more reason it should stay here,” Vivian said. “I’m afraid we’d run into some trouble managing it in Krebston. As if a dragonshifter baby won’t be trouble enough.”

The griffyn meowed and rubbed against Isobel’s leg, purring like a motorboat. Isobel glanced at Landon, who shrugged. “Your decision.”

“All right, then; Gracie stays with me.”

That settled, there was another round of hugs and then Vivian opened a door into Wakeworld. She peered through with a shiver of fear, not knowing what they would find on the other side. But there was A TO ZEE BOOKS, looking as it had the last time they’d left it. There was the chair where she had left Weston. Tears blurred her eyes and Zee put a hand on her shoulder.

“He brought us Lyssa.”

“So he did.”

Lyssa spun around in a circle, taking in the books, the sculptures. “Am I going to live here?”

Zee and Vivian exchanged a look. He nodded.

“Some of the time,” Vivian said. “And some of the time in Dreamworld. Or Between. If you want to.”

“And the baby?”

“You. The baby and Poe and Bob. And me and Zee.” Her eyes sought his, asking permission after the fact.

“Always and forever,” he said. “Dreaming and waking. If you’ll have me.”

“Always and forever,” she repeated.

THERE WAS NO need for bloodstone to buy passage from the Ferryman this time, or to travel his fearsome river at all. Calling on her magic, digging deep, Vivian made a door directly into the unworld where the dead Dreamshifters were trapped. As if they had known she was coming, they waited on the dusty plain.

Her grandfather stepped forward. “I had faith that you would remember us.”

“It was not a question of memory, but a near thing all the same.” She kissed his cheek, but her eyes were all for the bearded man in the old flannel shirt who stood off to the side, grinning.

“You sure you’re not a sorceress?” Weston asked.

“Turns out you were right about that after all.” She couldn’t stop smiling. “You look good, considering.”

“What were you expecting?”

“I wasn’t sure. Considering the Nothing, and what it does—”

“You found Lyssa.” He was smiling now, too. “She’s all right?”

Vivian nodded. He didn’t ever need to know about the missing hand. “Fine. Your raven has adopted her. She and my mother are currently busy creating new worlds out of raw dream matter.”