Page 24 of Consort's Dragon
“I’m sorry to ask, I’m just trying to understand.”
It is frustrating to discover the blooded have forgotten everything, but I will explain.Try to pay attention this time, though, as I don’t wish to have to keep repeating myself.
“You have my full attention,” Griff promised, eager to learn all he could about his dangerous captor.
As mentioned previously, dragons aren’t like humans and animals with their messy methods of procreation.When one dies, the essence, the spirit, if you will, with all its memories, including that of its death, is transformed so it might return.After the death of a body, it was the task of the blooded to retrieve the ova and hatch it by placing it in magma.A ritual as old as my kind.
And one passed down through family lines—Griff’s family line.Why had he never heard of it?The only thing he could think was that when the eggs were left in Fraegus Spire the ritual had been abandoned, and over time, dragons and everything about them became forgotten.
Only, after my last expiry—and that of the other dragons, which happened by their own hands as part of the plan to contain Zhos—the blooded did not accomplish their task.It was with great surprise upon emerging from my shell that I discovered more than a thousand years had passed.
“I think I know why these blooded folk didn’t follow the ritual.I was told the five stones, er, eggs,” he stammered in correction, “were what’s been keeping Zhos from being able to spread its influence outside its prison.”
Prison?Zhos remains in our world?
“Yes, under Fraegus Spire.Buried in a lake of ice and, until Basil stole them, also protected by the eggs.Er, you.”
That wasn’t supposed to be what happened, though.The blooded betrayed us,the dragon hissed.Used us to save themselves.
“I guess.I don’t actually know what happened.Just telling you what I know.”Then because the dragon appeared willing to talk, he ventured to ask, “What is Zhos?Is it a dragon like you?”
How insulting.Argent reared on its hind legs.
“Sorry, just trying to understand since we’ve no written record of it.”
Zhos is a being from another world.It arrived via a conduit between our dimensions, a corridor that closed shortly after.Its power allows it to enchant the living into doing its bidding.
“Kind of like a puppet master.”
That is an apt comparison.Upon its arrival, Zhos set out to destroy the living.Would have succeeded, too, if the dragons hadn’t been sacrificed to keep it contained.It was only supposed to be for a short time, though.The humans were tasked with locating a weapon that could destroy Zhos once and for all, only it appears they failed in that task.Or never bothered to even look.Argent huffed hot hair from its nose before asking,Why would they when the only cost to imprisoning Zhos was dragon lives?
“I take it would be bad if Zhos escaped.”
Very.
“Well then, you might want to help me because, as I mentioned, those eggs being removed has allowed Zhos to start fucking with people.They acted as some kind of shield that blocked his influence.Avera was supposed to retrieve and return the eggs to stop Zhos from spreading his malicious influence.”
So that is why she took them,the dragon mused.
“Avera has the eggs?”
Yes.She took them with her on that ship.
Griff might have been more relieved but for one thing.“That ship wasn’t going to Daerva to stop Zhos, but to Merisu.”
Dry and dusty place.Never cared for it.
“Did you hear me?The stones are going to the wrong place.”
I’m sure the blooded female will get them to correct their course.After all, the blooded are to be obeyed.
“Maybe in your time, but not anymore.Avera is a prisoner.She won’t get a say in where she goes or who gets the eggs.”
And?
“And we need to do something before Zhos escapes.”
We?The last time my kind got involved we died.As if that weren’t enough, humans left us to languish for more than a thousand years, breaking their vow to keep us in the egg for a short period of time while they figured out how to eradicate Zhos.
