Dragon Aster Trilogy (57 page)

“Tank doesn’t talk anymore. Supposedly he lost his voice to the Black Death on the Torian Continent, when Simera took Serena from them.”

Cirrus remembered the day. He was still young, but he was there when Simera made the split decision that he wanted Serena, and that meant taking her from Hain and his Pack. Only now did it occur to him how many memories Hain had blocked from where their paths had crossed in the past. Cirrus regretted coming along, fearing this phelan would recognize him, and it would ignite a fight.
Is it an injury that can be healed or…?

“
No one is sure. He won’t have Urio or any Sano so much as look at him. I think it was his pride that was actually taken, but I guess he hides it with the loss of his voice. Older phelan get strange sometimes in ways I don’t yet understand,”
Kenshe finished with a shrug.

Cirrus and Kenshe waited it out in relative silence then, until a footstep shook the ceiling overhead. The next one shook the entire house. He looked at Kenshe with concern.
Just how big is this guy?

Kenshe didn’t answer, only nodded in the direction of the stairs.

Cirrus thought that the stairs would cave in and snap from the giant phelan somnus who descended them. His dark hair was tied back in all its dry curls, and his dull red eyes gave him the appearance that he was at least a hundred years old. He stared at Cirrus for a while, before looking at Kenshe. Both of them looked to talk it out by psi, before Tank looked back at Cirrus with furrowed eyebrows. Cirrus got to his feet, not wanting to be caught sitting down if this got ugly. By Aragmoth’s grace alone, he wasn’t still the scrawniness of his last encounter with this phelan.

“So this…is where Fate comes around?”

Cirrus didn’t get the chance to answer, as Tank grabbed his neck and lifted him off of the ground by it. His strength and speed was uncanny.

“He’s the Fay’s Bond,” Kenshe said, trying to calm Tank down.

“I should break his neck,” Tank stated. “Which is undeserving considering the pain…you left me and the rest of my Pack in.” But Tank didn’t snap his neck and only set him back down.

Cirrus coughed and then rubbed his neck to make sure it was still there.

“Your kind is nothing less than a blight on this world.” Tank then looked at Kenshe.

“We need a good Runner to help escort a train to the town of Helios,” Kenshe said.

‘Helios? What would you want there?’

“We need a Gate to get to Earth,” Kenshe replied.

Tank nodded in understanding. “I will see Serena’s daughter. I wish to ask the Caelestis what draws her to the side of the dragons like it did her mother.”
‘Prisca pack some of our clothes together. We’re going on a train ride.’

“Yay!” she jumped up in excitement and ran upstairs.

“Is it safe to bring a child along with us?” Kenshe asked in concern.

‘My daughter is safer with me then staying home alone.’

“And I can Call!” Prisca hollered from upstairs.

‘And she can Call, a bit.’
“I am sorry about what happened to Hain. Your father was the best of us,” Tank continued in words.

“Thanks,” Kenshe replied, not wanting to go further into the topic of his father. “He died saving Sybl, and I like to think that it will count in the afterlife for him.”

Tank looked briefly at the floor.
‘Your father may have been a mercenary, as we all were back then, but he was a saint compared to the others I have seen.’

Prisca came nearly tumbling down the stairs with the loaded bag on her back. The little girl set the bag down, then leaned against it to catch her breath.

Tank went over to his daughter and picked up the bag as if it were a mere lunchbox to his size, and then went to get his sword that hung over the fireplace.
‘Will there be any chance of seeing the Black Death during this?’
he asked, looking at Cirrus.

“Unless Earth has miraculously allowed him to fly around, not likely,” Cirrus answered. He didn’t add anything about Simera being his father and he was unsure if Kenshe already had.

‘Is that what happened to that wretched bastard?’
Tank said with an amused laugh in his psi.
‘I suppose there is a place for everything, even diabolical creatures such as that one. If they managed to imprison him, I suppose it’s a more fitting punishment than death. Best to keep his soul where it can’t harm anyone else.’

Kenshe picked up Prisca and set her over his head and onto his shoulders. Prisca clung cheerfully onto his messy hair, and he ducked through the doorway out.

Cirrus and Tank had another stare down, and Tank could likely see just by his eyes alone whose son he was, but he said nothing more. He got the sickening feeling that this was going to be the most stressful ride of his life. Cirrus left the house to find Kenshe waiting for him with a questioning look in his eyes. “What?”

“I think I figured out your curse when it comes to females.”

“Really?” Cirrus asked, without enthusiasm.

“If Prisca here thinks you’re pretty, that means that you’re likely prettier than the majority of females. They don’t like losing along those lines.”

Cirrus only let out a long sigh, as he didn’t know how ‘pretty’ he might stay if Tank got a hold of him again.

When Kenshe, Tank, Prisca and Cirrus reached the center of the Harbor where the train station was, they were greeted by unfriendly and distrustful looks. Urio was shouting orders and already assembling a train on his own accord.

Cirrus eyed the locomotive like it was his own personal toy train set that he had just received as a gift. It was the ultimate attention-getter as the whole station froze when he somned into his dragon form, fearing that he would take to the tons of metal like a toy.

Kenshe only shook his head. “Are you having fun?”

“I didn’t touch it,” Cirrus countered, shrinking slightly smaller in size, but still taller than the locomotive, as his light blue eyes peered just over its top. He looked around the station as Feryl and Urio had managed to round up some workers rather quickly. Urio was clearly the right choice to get things organized and done.

“Ah, Tank!” Urio said, giving his old friend a hug. “And you brought my favorite Caller as well!” He picked up Prisca, and she giggled as she was tucked under his arm like an extra part.

“Is this all we need?” Cirrus asked.

“We still have to hire some Runners,” Urio answered.

“Should I prepare to push it too?” Cirrus replied, not understanding what the old phelan was talking about in its entirety yet.

Urio laughed. “You hear that Feryl? Looks like you’re pushing this hunk of junk.”

“Hey, it works!” Feryl countered with a shout, wiping a line of black grease across his sweaty forehead as he walked over to them. It matched his black and white streaked hair rather well. “And it’s the only one I could acquire with the pickings you gave me to bribe with.” Then he looked at the dragon stalking his train. “Runners are phelan who escort trains to their destination. There are a lot of angry spirits, griffins and a bit of everything that tends to want a bite out of trains on the Suzerain Continent. They carry supplies and important people who would rather not use their own four legs. Now with the guarantee all the rogue spirits out there are angry, we need to be prepared.”

“Kenshe is a natural Runner, just like his father was. So that gives us three,” Urio added.

“You’re a Runner?” Cirrus asked Feryl.

“Yeah, I’m not too old yet.” He looked at Urio then. “You coming along?”

“I am, but I can’t be a Runner anymore. Don’t have that kind of stamina left in me.”

“I was the fastest back in the day, but I’m betting that Kenshe can easily beat me in speed now,” Feryl said. “Tank was the meat shield, Urio was our Sano and Hain…well Hain was our Boss,” he finished, with a hint of sadness escaping his voice.

Cirrus had never felt anything aside from contempt for Hain, but it was clear that he was alone in his feelings about the dead Awl. Now that he knew that Damek’s Curse was meant to kill, as it had Kas, he couldn’t entirely avoid the gratitude in him for Hain saving Sybl. The Awl had bought them more time, but how much time he had left to save his Bond he didn’t know.

“He did nothing less than any of us would do. Only it wasn’t until now that I actually thought he had the guts for it,” Urio said, finishing the topic. “Now back to work.”

Cirrus didn’t know where he fit in there, so he decided to guard his oversized toy. He would be more useful in Helios with any unfriendly locals to the place. But someone was still staring at him. He found the red eyes, and it was Prisca who looked to be frozen in shock from where she stood looking up at him. But she didn’t run in terror to her father to Cirrus’ surprise.

“Do dragons have Packs?”

Cirrus’ face twitched at the question as he couldn’t imagine a daoran putting up with more than one mate. They would sooner kill them off to have some peace and quiet which was their nature. But he couldn’t bring himself to disappoint his newest, most unexpected fan. Not when she was the only female on the planet, next to Sybl, who didn’t want to kill him. “Sometimes dragoons have more than one female.” He didn’t add the details to just how wrong it was.

“You can’t do that!” she shouted at him.

“Why not?” he teased.

“Because that isn’t fair.”

“And you having more than one male is fair?”

“Yes,” Prisca replied, quite certain.

Cirrus smiled, trying to keep as much of his teeth to himself as he could. “You should ask the Caelestis to change the Laws then, not me.”

“I will do that.” Prisca pulled out a ribbon of gold from her pocket and held it between her hands as if she was praying.

Cirrus unsomned and looked more closely to what she was doing. “What is that?”

“Chrison stole it from the Caelestis’ pocket. I think it fell off of her unicorn mask when she was pretending to be an Awl.”

“Can I see that for a moment?”

“No. Not until I’m done asking her Lady Caelestis to change the Laws.”

Cirrus knelt down on one knee as he watched Prisca sing up a Nova with her small, but powerful voice. But only minutes into the trance, she snapped back out with a gasp. “What did you see?” he asked, catching her shoulders to shake her back into focus.

“She’s fighting something. Something big!”

Cirrus took his hands back to himself when Tank came over in concern, before taking the golden ribbon from the ayame who didn’t look to want it anymore. He closed his eyes and soon saw what Prisca had, but also that Sybl wasn’t alone. He gripped it tighter and boarded the train as it was ready to leave. He would not accept the possibility of losing Sybl for anything.

Sybl opened her eyes to find herself in a Vision of what looked like the past, as an armored steam locomotive stood before her. The noise dropped to a lower level, and she looked back at a familiar voice.

“Urio, this place looks like the train stop to a crypt!”

“Serena,” Urio said as he took up her side, “we’re only staying for a few minutes while the train prepares to leave.”

Sybl stopped breathing. Urio looked at least thirty years younger, and the woman with him looked so much like herself that it caused Sybl to shiver.
Mother…

Serena rubbed her arms from the cold. Or was it from her presence? She remembered Kas’ spirit always being as cold as ice when he tried to touch her.

The ayame with them lifted the hood of her mother’s cloak over her head. “My Custos are already here.”

Sybl took a step closer to get a better look at the ayame, and she could see now that it was Kas’ mother, Kira.

“I hope they brought their weapons,” Hain said as he looked in the direction where several phelan guards took notice of them. The black-armored soldiers of the Atrum had begun to organize their positions to prevent them from leaving the station.

“Stay next to me,” Kira said to Serena. Then she began to murmur a low Call that was barely audible to the human ear. Her long, straight black hair floated up around her as her estus energy was made lighter by aeri. As she sung, several phelan Custos dressed in white uniforms appeared. They leapt from their phelan forms into their human-like appearances onto the rooftops, and at the soldiers who had surrounded them. Then they took quick aim with their blades at the vital organs of the attackers who were caught by surprise. It was as if Kira’s Call had made the Custos momentarily invisible.