“But...” I scrambled for a response, a way out, anything to stop this horrific reality from going forward. “You don’t know if this procedure will work, you just said so yourself. The vessels can’t imprint memories or personality. What if you get into my head and we both go nuts?”
“Oh, my dear.” The Elder Wyrm chuckled again and shook her head. “What makes you think you and Dante are the only children I created?”
My heart seemed to stop. “But you said—”
“I said thevesselsare unsuited for memory transfer. Of course I would not risk myself if the procedure had not been perfected.” The Elder Wyrm shook her head at me, smiling. “You are not the first daughter of mine, Ember Hill. Nor the second, nor the third. You are simply the oldest. There were others, many others, before you. The first experiments were quite dismal—many were lost to madness, deformities or other failures. But we kept trying, knowing that with every clone we put down, we learned something new. We learned that the brain must have the chance to fully develop, to experience memory, emotion, personality and all the things that cannot be artificially emulated. So you see, daughter...” The Elder Wyrm smiled her coldest, most terrifying smile yet. “The secret of immortality is within my grasp, and it will be mine alone.”
“And...what happened to all the other clones?” I whispered. My sisters, the siblings I had never known. The Elder Wyrm’s terrifying expression didn’t change.
“They were destroyed.”
Straightening, she took a step back. “Unfortunately, before my memories can be implanted, we will have to remove yours,” she said. “Two personalities in one mind will certainly cause complications. I will no doubt have my hands full trying to adjust to my new body without having to fight your presence for control. Better that no trace of your personality remains when I settle in.”
Horror threatened to choke me. “You can’t do that,” I whispered.
“Of course we can,” the Elder Wyrm said. “Humans have been doing similar things for years, even without old magic. Brainwashing, hypnotism, forced amnesia...the mind is a curious thing.” She stepped back, watching as I forced myself to breathe, to not panic, though I felt that, if I opened my mouth, I would start screaming and not be able to stop. “Sacrifice has always been necessary for the survival of our race, Ember,” the Elder Wyrm said. “I know it means little now, but this will ensure that Talon never falls, and dragons are one step closer to ruling the world, as it should be.”
“Why now?” I asked desperately. “If this was what you were planning all along, why the charade? What was all that about having me take my place in Talon with Dante?”
“That was for Dante’s benefit,” the Elder Wyrm replied. “He is still disturbingly loyal to you and would not take the truth of your creation well. I allowed him to think he could save you, because a willing heir is much easier to work with. Which is why I sent him away for a time. I knew you would never agree to conform to Talon. From what I have seen and heard, you have been corrupted thoroughly by Cobalt. There are ways to get you to do what we want, of course, ways to leverage your cooperation. For instance, it is hard to be willful when your friends are screaming in pain on the other side of the glass.”
I closed my eyes, feeling my stomach turn inside out with the realization. I’d never had a chance here. Talon knew exactly what to do to get me to cooperate. If I saw Garret and Riley in pain, if the choice was between killing for Talon and letting either of them die... I would probably agree to whatever they wanted.
“But that is unnecessary,” the Elder Wyrm went on. “Your cooperation is not needed, Ember Hill. The timing is perfect. I have my army. I have my heir. Everything is in place. The only thing I require now is immortality.”
A human in a white coat appeared, his head bowed in respect as he approached the Elder Wyrm. “Ma’am? We’re ready to begin.”
“Excellent.” The Elder Wyrm’s predatory stare settled on the human. “And you are certain the procedure will be complete before the night of Fang and Fire?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The Elder Wyrm gave a brusque nod, and the scientist walked to the head of the gurney and grasped the sides. “I’m afraid this is the last time we will see each other,” she said as he began pulling me away. “Apparently, the process of removing your memories is an involved procedure and will take time to fully complete. If you accept the process and do not fight it, it will be much easier for you.” She gave me an amused look as the scientist paused at a door, pulling it open. “Of course, I realize that would be like telling a fish not to swim. You do remind me of myself when I was your age, though that was a long, long time ago. I’ve almost forgotten what it was like, to be young.” Her smile widened, becoming almost wistful. “I must admit, I am looking forward to having another thousand years.”
Then the gurney was pushed through the frame, the door closed behind us and the Elder Wyrm was gone.
As the gurney rolled forward, I thrashed against the restraints, trying desperately to Shift, to summon the strength to ignore whatever drugs they’d stuck me with. But I felt nothing but a cold sluggishness within, and despair settled heavily in my chest, joining the anger and fear. A man waited in the room beyond, another scientist type in a long white lab coat, smiling at me as I was rolled forward. “Ah, here she is,” he exclaimed, peering at me through his glasses. “Ember Hill, what a pleasure it is to meet you. You must be terribly excited—after sixteen years, your true purpose is finally being fulfilled. To be the Elder Wyrm’s chosen vessel, what a tremendous honor.”
“Yeah, I don’t really see it like that,” I growled at him. He chuckled.
“Nonsense. This is what you were created for. Just think, if immortality can actually be achieved, what will that mean for both dragons and the entire human race? I, for one, am eager to see all my hard work finally come to fruition. Now then, let’s get a look at you.” The scientist pulled the stethoscope from around his neck and put it to my chest. “Hmm, heartbeat is abnormally fast,” he muttered, and I glared at him.
“Oh, really? I wonder why that is.” My voice shook, and I had to force myself to breathe calmly. “You’re just brainwashing and turning me into a zombie so that the Elder Wyrm can move into my head. Nothing evil there.”
“Brainwashing? Oh, no, no, no. This is nothing so crude.” The scientist put the stethoscope back around his neck and smiled at me fondly. “Brainwashing involves high levels of trauma, either physical or mental, to break down a subject’s personality, beliefs and sense of self so that they can be replaced with a new set of ideals. The process can take months, or longer, and the subject still retains who he is at his core. His memories have not been erased, merely suppressed.” He paused as two other scientists converged on me, tightening straps, pulling my eyelids down to shine a light into them, swabbing my skin with something that stung my nostrils. “Whatweare going to do is a complete mind wipe,” he went on when there was a lull in the ministrations. “We are going to extract your memories and all the emotion, knowledge and skills attached to them, so that your brain will be fully receptive to new memory, skills and personality. Think of it as erasing your computer’s hard drive, removing all files and data, destroying any harmful information or viruses it might’ve picked up and completely starting over.”
“And...what will happen tome?” I asked. I tried, once more, to Shift, to burst into my true form and burn my way out of this laboratory of horrors, but the dragon refused to stir. The scientist continued to smile and speak casually, as if he was explaining to a child why the needle wouldn’t hurt.
“Well, for the procedure at least, your memory will be electronically stored,” he replied, nodding to something off to the side of the gurney. I craned my neck around to see what looked like a large computer bank, with several men in white coats hovering around the screens. “We’ve had fairly good success with saving individual memories,” the scientist went on, “though eventually they do break down and are lost. But, ultimately, it will be up to the Elder Wyrm to decide what to do with yours. If she wants to keep you for later use or erase you completely.”
“So, you’re saying thatmeas an individual, everything that makes me who I am, will be destroyed. Gone forever.” The human regarded me serenely but didn’t answer, and my heart fluttered around my ribs like a panicked bird. I bared my teeth at him. “I hope you know that’s essentially murder. Isn’t there some sort of oath that condemns that? Do no harm? Don’t play God? Any of this ringing a bell?”
“Oh, my dear, I’m not a doctor. I’m a scientist.” The two other men returned and began sticking electrodes to my forehead, neck and arms, while the scientist watched them. “And even if I were, the Hippocratic oath only applies to humans. ‘I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.’ If we are going to quote passages at each other.”
He gave me a thin smile as his helpers finished their task and walked away, leaving me with about a dozen wires connecting my skull to the computer bank. “But you are a dragon,” the scientist continued. “In the decades I have spent among your kind, I have seen and come to accept certain things. You are not like us. Your minds are more like a computer than anything else—logical and calculating, capable of retaining massive amounts of information, able to recall the smallest fact across hundreds of years. You are truly a remarkable race, I will admit. But you are not human. And even if the Elder Wyrm was not expecting me to complete this procedure, I have worked on this project for too many years to stop now. Now, at last, we will see if immortality is really possible.”
Another scientist approached and handed him the first needle and syringe. “Well, we are almost ready to begin,” the head scientist stated, pressing the syringe so that a few drops of clear liquid squirted out the top. He nodded in satisfaction and looked down at me again. “I don’t know about you, but I am quite excited. Aren’t you just a little pleased to know you will be contributing to such a massive breakthrough? Just think of what this will mean for your entire race.”
“Fuck you,” I snarled, the most elegant thing I could come up with at the moment. He chuckled, shaking his head.