Born of Fire: The Dawn of Legend (77 page)

“But I don’t understand. What did you ever have to do with them?”

“They, with other members of their tribe, crossed into our territory while hunting for the DraGons. They found them while they laid siege to my tribe, and in an act of bravery that has never once ceased to leave me impressed, joined in the battle to defend the Black Frost.”

“So then that’s how it happened?” LyCora asked with waterlogged eyes. “That’s how they…died?”

“Yes. When I found them, your father was already gone. They had made their last stand shielding two of our young…my sons.” She could no longer hold back her pain as a mournful cry escaped her throat. “SiNaro and RayKov. They…they were the two most important things in my life, and those monsters killed them in cold blood! No remorse!” VayRonx and KyVina moved to either side of her and nuzzled her gently. “I’m fine,” she said, regaining her composure. “LyCora, your mother was still clinging to life when I got to her, just barely, but alive nonetheless. Before death took her, she asked me to promise her that you would be protected and looked after. I gave her my word that I would see to it myself, and that I would raise you as my own. Then…she was gone.”

Much to her own surprise, LyCora broke down into tears. It was the first time most of them had ever seen her so vulnerable. She felt wave after wave of emotion wash over, prompting a seemingly endless flow of tears. Then she felt a hand gently caress her back. Looking up, she was surprised to see it belonging to DiNiya, who in turn was stifling her own tears with a comforting smile. LyCora took DiNiya’s hand in hers as the sparks of an extinguished friendship rekindled.

VoRenna brought her head down to her daughter, who hugged it eagerly. “I am sorry that I could never give you the life they could have, but know that I have always loved you as much as a mother could, as much as I loved the children lost to me.”

“I know,” LyCora replied, gripping her mother tighter. “I’ve always known. Thank you for everything. For taking me in and loving me like your own even though I wasn’t of your people.”

“What you are is my daughter,” VoRenna declared with conviction. “Now and forever. What you look like matters not.”

The scene was a touching one. In fact, the whole moment was one of eye-opening reflection, with all six young flames finding themselves at odds with who they once believed themselves to be, with the realization of that which they were. Something they were still unsure if they truly knew. None more so than Rex, who regarded the scene with reserved confusion, fear, and of course anger. Turning back to BaRone, he slowly looked up and met the older man’s eyes, which seemed to stare back at his with silent understanding.

“To answer your question, Rex,” he said with a fragile smile and tearful eyes. “The DraGons somehow learned that you were with your mother—”

“My mother?”

BaRone smiled and wiped the tears from his eyes. “SeroFiya, she had said she was the luckiest woman in the world: two handsome sons and a beautiful daughter. In any case, she and the Guild had discovered that the gate had opened when the lab’s main systems were reactivated. No one knew how they were connected, though, only that it grew stronger the closer you or DiNiya came to it.”

DiNiya suddenly looked up from where she was kneeling next to LyCora. “What? Us?”

“Something to do with the red flame.”

“However, despite sharing the same type of flame as Rex,” VayRonx explained, “it was not you they seemed to be after.”

“How do you know for sure?” Rex asked.

“Because they bypassed KaNar completely, where she was at the time, and headed straight for the gateway, for you.” Rex looked down at the ground, unsure of what to say. “I sent the CyTorians to both intercept them and get word to SeroFiya that you were now in mortal danger.”

“I went with KySer to warn her,” BaRone said, staring off as he relived the events of that day. “We arrived just before they did. I only had minutes to tell her they were coming, when I heard the sky fill with their terrible cries. I looked up and there they were. All seven of them.” His voice began to tremble. “All of them grinning down at us, so satisfied with themselves that they had finally caught their quarry. It was then that I heard the words that would haunt me for the rest of my life. ‘Protect DiNiya and EeNox, my love, and tell them I love them.’ I turned back just in time to see her dive into the sea, holding you tight to her chest, Rex. That was the last time I ever saw her.”

Seeing that his friend was having difficulty recounting the worst day of his life, TarFor placed a heavy hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. BaRone wanted to speak no more; he would have preferred to crawl into the deepest, darkest hole he could find and curl up. He knew that he owed it to his mate to tell her tale of bravery and self-sacrifice, though. “In any case, the DraGons dove in after her, and then they were gone. Never to be seen again.”

“Not by any of you,” Rex said, causing all eyes to turn on him. “But they made it through to Earth with us. Or at least one did. My father told me something happened the night he found me. That he heard something that destroyed a portion of the museum I was found in, but beyond that: nothing. Not until that night fifteen years later when a DraGon rose from the Earth and killed him in the very place he found me. That was when I shifted the first time.” There were gasps at the sudden revelation. “And when I killed that monster just like he did my father. Then…the sky changed, like it was opening to receive me…to take me back to where I belong, but then…”

“But what?” DiNiya asked. “Rex, what do you remember? How did you survive?”

“And how did you end up here?” EeNox added. “Back home?”

“I…don’t know,” he replied as he struggled to make sense with what he was remembering. “There was a light. No, a red flame in the sky. It was so bright and burning so hot, hotter than the sun had ever felt. It became blinding, and I couldn’t see anything anymore. Then I felt it all slip away and go dark. When I awoke, I was lying in a field looking up at a sky that I had never seen before…or so I thought.” Rex stood in silence for a moment before he suddenly recalled something he had almost forgotten entirely about. “Why was I unable to ignite my flame on Earth? I mean, I understand not knowing the finer points of control given that there was no one around to teach, but should I not have at least been able to ignite it?”

“Yes, you should have,” VayRonx replied. “And would have had I not had a healer surgically implant a shard of CarNite in your chest.”

“The scar,” Rex said as recalled the thin, healed-over wound that had been on his chest.

“CarNite is extremely rare,” ShinGaru said. “How did you manage to get your hands on any?”

“We found it in the lab with Rex,” BaRone said. “I still have a piece, actually.”

“Are you serious?” DiNiya asked in surprise.

“It wouldn’t just so happen to be collecting dust in a small box tucked away in the back of your shop, now would it?” Rex asked.

BaRone sighed. “I had grown so accustomed to it no longer having any effect on DiNiya that it did not occur to me that you might sense it.”

“All that thing did was make me feel lightheaded.”

“That’s because it was sapping your flame. Minimal contact with a red flame probably does little more than make you feel a bit weak in the knees, but prolonged exposure can…well, there’s a reason Fire Roses can’t grow around them.”

“And you’re saying you had some of that stuff put inside of me?” Rex asked, sounding almost disgusted.

“We never wanted to, I assure you,” VayRonx said. “When we learned that the DraGons might have been hunting you, however, we were forced to try something desperate to get them off your trail.”

“And so we implanted the shard inside your body in the hopes that it would be far from enough to kill or even harm you,” BaRone explained. “But just enough to keep your flame permanently subdued.”

Rex felt light on his feet; something that had troubled him all his life had suddenly been made perfectly clear.

“SeroFiya also took with her a second, larger CarNite stone, much like the one you discovered in the shop, to use to start subduing your flame right away.”

“Why?” DiNiya asked. “What was the point if they had managed to already successfully implant one in Rex?”

“Because it was so small that it would have taken time to drain enough power to keep him from involuntarily igniting his flame and possibly luring the DraGons right to him,” BaRone turned back to Rex and gave him a more sympathetic gaze. “You said there was an explosion the night you were found?” Rex nodded. “And no remains of anyone but you were found?”

“That’s right,” Rex replied.

“Well, that solves the mystery of why you were orphaned on Earth,” the man said as he wiped his eyes. “Once CarNite absorbs enough red flame, it can release it in a powerful burst of energy if ruptured that instantly incinerates anything within the vicinity. A piece the size she was carrying…would have been enough.”

“So wait…the explosion, it was her?”

“She died protecting you, Rex, and in doing so, destroyed any chance of anyone else following after you through the breech between the two worlds.”

“And are we to understand that the Guild knew about all of this?” ShinGaru asked.

“Yes,” VayRonx replied.

“And saw fit to cover it up,” LyCora added.

“No. That was our decision.”

“But why? Why keep something so important a secret from the world?”

“And why would the Guild go along with a cover-up?” ShinGaru asked.

“Because I went to them personally and begged the Northern Capital’s alpha to help convince the Guild to never expose any of this in order to preserve any chance you all might have at a normal life. In the end they agreed, stating that your well-being was the top priority once it was confirmed there were no more DraGons slumbering under ClyVen. That became the end of it.”

“You think so, do you?” Rex said. “Well, I can assure you it was just the beginning for me. The beginning of a life where I constantly had to look over my shoulder and was treated like some hideous freak of nature!” Rex now spoke with savage indignation in his voice. “Can you even imagine what it’s like to wake up every day hating the very life you are forced to lead, day in and day out?” Everyone remained silent, heads bowed. “But do you know what is worse than living in a world where everyone hates you? Living in one where only one person loves you, and do you know why? Because then there is a constant reminder of what life could be like if you just looked like everyone else, had been born like everyone else. But still it was better than nothing, I suppose.  In the end, though…I wasn’t allowed that.” Rex held his head low for a moment, caught in the grip of his memories, before at last looking back up at all the sympathetic faces. “And so I found myself here.”

“With no memory of how you came to be there, or the father you lost,” BaRone said. “Rex, I am truly sorry—for the loss of the woman who would have been your mother, for not having had the chance to be your father, and for the loss of the man who had the privilege of being such.”

“I surmise he was a good man to have taken you in and raise you with love the way he did,” VayRonx said, lowering his head to Rex’s level. “I realize this will come as little or no consolation to you, but his death was not in vain, for you are alive, and I know he would be happy to see you as you are now.”

“He deserves to be here too,” Rex said, looking up.

“He is, for you are the keeper of all the good he ever was, that he taught you. Because of that, the best part of him will be wherever you go, in this world or any other. Take heart in that truth, Rex.”

“I have a question,” AnaSaya said, prompting all eyes to turn toward her. “You said there were no other flames or embryos growing in the lab, right?”

“That’s right,” BaRone replied.

“Then where did the one pretending to be KyGahl come from?”

There was an eerie silence amongst the group as the full weight of the question set in. Before the night of the attack, there had not been any indication that there were others whose flames had been preserved. Then again, next to nothing was known about the who or why surrounding their current existence.

“We do not know how or where DayKar was resurrected,” VayRonx said at last.

“Then that means there might be other facilities like the one you found in ClyVen all over the world,” AnaSaya said. “Who knows how many more people walking around could really be DraGons hiding in plain sight?”

“Since the attack, there has been no word of the same thing happening anywhere else in the world,” KyVina explained. “That means, for the moment at least, that this was an isolated incident.”

“But that won’t be the case forever,” Rex declared.

“If you are looking for assurances, then I’m afraid none of us will be able to provide you with any,” VayRonx said. “However, we are far from defeated. While these DraGons have indeed landed a painful blow, they have also forfeited their greatest weapon: anonymity.”

“He’s right,” VoRenna echoed. “Do not forget that they failed to defeat one small mountain village. I doubt very much they would have better luck when pitted against the entire continent, which will no doubt be setting its collective on the sky now.”

Rex snorted derisively. “If they have any sense, they’ll crawl back into whatever dark hole they’ve hidden themselves in for ten thousand years and hope it takes us at least half that long to find them.”

“Do not despair,” VayRonx said. “We are hardly the same ignorant primitives we were when they first came to EeNara. This is our world, and we will not allow an eon of peace and prosperity to be swept aside overnight.” With that, VayRonx reared up and led the way back, the others following. Despite all that had befallen them, he was happy that the truth at last had come to light. Heavy had the secret weighed on him these past fifteen years. Still, events had been set into motion, and he now feared for what the future may hold for all of them.

Later that evening, Rex had at last begun to drift off to sleep when he was startled awake by a loud crash, which shook the entire room. He leaped out of bed and ran out into the hall where he saw EeNox and BaRone looking around frantically. “What’s happening?” he asked.