Dragon Renegade by James David Victor

Author:James David Victor [Victor, James David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fairfield Publishing
Published: 2024-07-16T00:00:00+00:00

11

TRANSMISSION

Outer Systems

White light tore through Keel’s mind.

He wasn’t aware if he was screaming, or even if he could scream in whatever space this was. He did know that he felt pain, and that one second more of it would drive him mad…

‘Brother!’

Darkwing’s fiery voice reached him through the torment, and Keel’s mind flailed toward it. There was the warmth and strength coming from the dragon as he reached out for him.

“Darkwing!” Keel yelled, throwing himself into the dragon’s embrace. The heat of the dragon’s mind enfolded and held him.

Suddenly, the pain was gone, and Keel was floating in utter darkness.

Twin points of brilliant gold light sparked in the night, coming closer. It was Darkwing’s eyes, hovering over him.

‘You are not where you should be. You are lost. Between places.’

With the words came the dragon’s knowledge. Keel’s soul was nowhere. It wasn’t housed in any server or any body. How was this possible?

Darkwing said a word that had no translation in Keel’s mind, but he scrabbled toward understanding. Something like ‘carrying the flame through the dark’ or ‘tending the fire,’ and Keel knew at once it meant the soul of the dragon when they died.

‘All things die. Dragons carry a piece of their fires in the heart of the nest.’

The nest was the collective consciousness of all dragon-kind. Did this mean that Keel’s consciousness was housed by them right now?

“Dragons can access each other’s memories. Does this mean…” Keel heard himself murmur in the dark. He had accessed Darkwing’s memories, and Goldmother’s. Could the nest access the memories—the souls—of their kin who had passed away? Was the nest like a vast, organic House of Records server?

‘No! Foulness!’ Darkwing reacted at once, and Keel felt the wash of anger and disgust rush through him. With it came direct understanding.

The dragons didn’t hold onto the dying dragon’s mind or soul. They allowed it to move onto wherever it went in the cosmos, but a fragment—an imprint—of it remained, allowing the rest of the nest to benefit from its memories.

“And that is where I am right now?” Keel swam in the black, held and surrounded by the dragon.

‘You are kin. You will pass on to the cosmos, but a part of you will always be with me,’ Darkwing said.

“Funny how you expect me to die before you,” Keel pointed out.

The dragon’s mind breathed humor, and Keel could feel the cynicism that poured through it.

‘Of course. You are very, very small. I am much stronger than you.’

Keel didn’t have time to laugh or argue when this darkness was cut through with brilliant white light and a flash of agony.

“My brother! What is happening?” Keel cried out. There was another flash, and another, each time brighter and more painful than the last.

He felt himself being dragged away from the dragon, as if his entire being was being cut away with plasma fire.

“Darkwing!” Keel shouted, but his scream was lost. The dragon was gone, and all around him was brilliant, burning white.

“Keel?”

“Keel!”

The light grew unbearably bright until, with a flash and the cry of his name, it vanished just as mysteriously as it had arrived.

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