Lilly sniffed through the aftermath while men dragged away the bodies of their fallen brothers. The Doan had retreated out of sight thanks to Gersius's display of power. Gams felt it was safe to risk men to gather their dead and give them proper burials. This boosted morale, but Lilly didn't feel all that comforted by it. She walked through the area blasted by fire, stirring clouds of ash in her wake.
“All of this because they hate Balisha?” Lilly asked to no one in particular and clawed at a pile of ash. She lifted her head high as the sun's final rays streaked the sky. Somewhere out there was the Doan, and they were preparing to attack on a much greater scale. Gersius and Sarah couldn't be at every battle, nor could they hope to stem the tide themselves. Men and women, by the hundreds of thousands, were going to fight and die so they could have their quiet home.
“This is a crime,” Lilly hissed and slammed the ground. “And dragons are responsible for it.” As she wandered through the ash, she wondered if it would be better if dragons did die out. Their war broke the world the first time, and their war threatened to soak it in blood again. The anger and frustration circled through her mind as she reached the end of the carnage. She looked west to where the enemy was hiding and noticed a dark mass lying in the distance. The dragon that had attacked them lay broken where Sarah had thrown her. Lilly knew this was a dragon of the enemy, but she still felt remorse over her death. At the very least, she deserved a prayer of passing and someone to mourn the loss.
Lilly approached the fallen dragon with her head cast down. She hated to see another dragon slain in this pointless conflict, and she wanted to bless this poor creature. The dragon lay in a broken heap with deep gouges in her side. A wing was folded and broken, and its back was twisted at a horrid angle. Lilly sat just over her body and allowed a tear to fall as she opened her heart to call Balisha. Just as she went to pray, an arm moved, and the dragon let out a gurgle.
“You’re alive!” Lilly cried and nearly fell over.
The dragon didn't answer except to twitch and curl a hand weakly. Lilly had been so overcome with grief she had stopped using the aura sight, but now she blinked and brought it back. The dragon had a weak light that seemed to be blowing away like smoke in the wind. She moved around the body to the head and looked down to see a single eye open and looking up with tears.
“Oh,” Lilly said as their gazes met. In seconds Lilly relived that horrible moment in her valley where she lay broken and dying with all hope having faded away. She knew what this kind of despair and hopelessness felt like, and now she saw it in this poor creature. Her only hope lay in the mercy of others, and out of nowhere, a champion arrived to bring her back.
“Hold on, I will heal you!” she cried.
“No,” the dragon moaned. “Leave me to die.”
“But?” Lilly said as she paused to look down on the dying animal. “I can save you.”
“I would rather die than live in the world you hope to bring about,” the dragon said and closed her eyes.
“But why?” Lilly pleaded. “I am not your enemy. I never was.”
“You are the fallen dragon,” the red said in a strained voice. “Tainted by the touch of men and working to break the final blessing of our fallen goddess. You are the doom bringer, and I hate you.”
“Well, I don't hate you,” Lilly replied and lowered her face to hover close to her fallen sister. “I would rather save you than see you perish. I never wanted this conflict to happen, and it was your kind who came to me and set all this in motion. You sent a dragon to murder me to prevent me from learning the truth and, in doing so, ensured I would come face to face with it.”
“Lies,” the dragon wheezed. “You are clouded in lies, and they taint everything you say.”
“I don't care what you believe,” Lilly said as they stood over the dragon. “The only thing that separates us is I am no longer blinded by Solesta's curse. I see what you cannot, and I am free to experience a range of emotions you can't even imagine exist. That is what your kind is so afraid of, what will happen when you realize how pointless your lives are. That's what will die if Balisha is restored, your empty lives will pass away, and you will awaken to a new purpose.”
“Your words are empty,” the dragon said as her eyes closed again. “And now I go to my rest.”
“No,” Lilly said with a shake of her head. “I won’t let you die in your ignorance.” The dragon growled weakly as Lilly put her hands to its side and opened her heart to the goddess. She called out loudly to Balisha and began a powerful song, channeling the goddess into the broken creature's body. A golden light began to flow across the dragon's body as snapping and cracking sounds echoed around her. The creature's back straightened, and so did her wings as the gouges began to melt away.
“Why are you doing this?” the creature hissed weakly once it had the strength to speak. “I am your enemy.”
Lilly didn’t break her song to answer and kept pouring power into the beast until she felt the last bruise melt away. Then she stepped back, allowing the bigger dragon to rise to her feet and look down in confusion.
“I am sorry we had to fight,” Lilly said as she looked up at the bigger dragon.
“You are sorry?” the beast asked with a voice full of confusion. “Why? Why would you save me?”
“Because you're a dragon, and I love my kind,” Lilly replied.
“You are trying to kill us,” the dragon insisted. “By restoring the false goddess and weakening our blood. She will spread her vile message to all our kind, and in a few generations, we will be a shadow of ourselves and be gone in a few more.”
“No,” Lilly said with a shake of her head. “All of that is a lie. Balisha only wants us to have a choice and the freedom to know what it's like to be loved.”
“I can’t accept that,” the dragon huffed. “I know the truth of Solesta and am protected by her final blessing.”
Lilly had heard this argument before from Rose and knew that challenging it would only make the dragon defensive. So instead, she applied a simple logical question to make the dragon challenge her beliefs.
“Then one of us is living a lie,” Lilly pressed. “You say I am the doom of dragons because I worship the goddess Balisha. You say I hate our kind and would see our blood end. On the other hand, you fight for what is good and right by honoring Solesta. But ask yourself this, if our situations had been reversed, would you have rushed to save me?”
The dragon looked stunned momentarily as Lilly's question tore into her heart. They both knew the answer, but to admit it would prove Lilly right.
“I told you the only thing that will pass away is your empty life. A new life full of purpose and wonder will replace it, and one day, when you have overcome your shame, you will be able to embrace it,” Lilly insisted.
“I should kill you,” the dragon replied as if it hadn't heard her, but Lilly saw the truth in her light. She was torn with conflict as her aura danced through a range of emotions.
“Yes, prove me right again,” Lilly challenged. “Kill me for showing you kindness and respect due a sister of the scale. Prove to me that you are the one who best exemplifies our blood by killing another dragon.”
The red trembled at Lilly's words, and her claws churned up the soil. Under normal circumstances, this would be a terrible risk, but Lilly knew the truth. This dragon had been so close to death that even fully healed, she would be weak. It would take days to recover her strength fully, and she would be easily defeated if she dared to attack Lilly now.
The dragon turned her head as she folded her wings tightly. She turned and walked away, her strength too depleted she couldn't even fly.
“You are always welcome in our lands,” Lilly called after her. “I will show you things you can’t imagine.”
“No, you won't,” the dragon called back. “When the tide of our wrath comes in force, there will be no lands left for you to call home.”
The dragon kept walking away in silence as Lilly sat and watched her go. Her heart was heavy to see yet another of her kind, unable to accept the truth. Not only had she rejected it, but she wiped away Lilly's offer with a promise of destruction. It was more evidence that they were on the brink of a terrible final series of battles that would soak the lands with blood. She looked in the direction of the retreating dragon and wondered how to reach the Doan.
With a heavy heart, she turned back and returned to the battlefield to use her strength to help. It was sad to see that even with her help, many of the cavalry had fallen. Men and women were torn apart by the wild bandersooks, all to protect their homelands from a dragon's curse.
Lilly helped for hours, then returned to the wall and rejoined her family. She followed the pull in the bind and found her family in another meeting, but this one was far more tense than the previous one. Gersius glowed with anger and looked like a man ready to strike all who opposed him. Sarah stood at his side, looking equally unhappy with the situation as Gams explained what they wanted was impossible.
“We need to go on the offensive now,” Gersius insisted.
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“Son, you know as well as I do that we don't have the manpower,” Gams insisted. “You started this whole mess because you lacked the men back then, and you went to plead for more.”
Gersius nodded as his mind filled with focused, calculated thoughts. He stated that every province had already been ordered to turn over nearly all of their soldiers. He stripped every temple and pressed all the women of Ulustrah they had into service, swelling their companies and necessitating the creation of a fourth. Still, this wasn't enough, and with the Doan now testing their defenses, it was clear the time was growing short.
“We have no choice,” Gersius said in a dire tone. “We will have to institute a conscription.”
Lilly had no idea what that meant, but the reaction of some of the leadership demonstrated their disapproval. One captain even dared to say that throwing a hundred thousand farmers at the Doan would only swell their casualties. A heated discussion erupted where even Gams implored Gersius to reconsider. Lilly used the opportunity to pull Thayle aside and ask her what it meant.
“A conscription is when the ruler of land forces people into the army,” Thayle replied. “They become peasant soldiers and are usually of the worst quality and effectiveness. It's only useful when you desperately need bodies to throw at the enemy, and casualties aren't important anymore.”
“What?” Lilly gasped as she couldn’t believe Gersius was even considering this. “How is this saving the people?”
“He has no choice,” Thayle whispered. “His hand has been forced, and if he does nothing, there is a good chance those people will die anyway. If the Doan sweep the empire, they will butcher the masses, but if Gersius organizes the people into a large cohesive fighting group, they will at least take some of the Doan with them.”
Lilly reeled that it had come to this, and the fighting hadn't even fully started. She realized this was the same tactic the Father Abbot had used as a last-ditch effort to stop Gersius's advance. He had massed tens of thousands of the people together into a great mass, determined to throw them at Gersius. He had been so overcome by the thought of killing the people he had come to save that he went out alone to face them, forcing the divines to intervene. Now he was advocating for the same thing; only The Doan would not seek to avoid casualties. She knew those people would be slaughtered, and the cost would be horrific even if they took some of the Doan with them.
She listened to the debate as Gams insisted they could go on the offensive with the third arm,y but Gersius refused to move it from the north.
“And if the Doan attack from the north, all three of our armies will be trapped,” Gersius stated. “We will be cut off and annihilated, and the empire will fall anyway. At least with a conscription, I can double the men you have at the walls and create a barrier that even they can't break until I can destroy the missing army.”
“I understand your point,” Gams pressed. “But you haven’t been able to find that army after weeks of searching. We have probably intelligence that suggests the whole thing is a ruse to draw a portion of our strength away.”
“Lilly found some of their scouts,” Sarah cut in. “And they have begun raiding small villages.”
“Small villages?” Gams laughed. “A hundred men could do that and make it look like it was thousands. All they need is a few hundred scattered in hidden camps to tie down your entire army.”
“I have considered this possibility,” Gersius said with a sudden look of tiredness. “But I have also considered what will happen if it proves to be wrong and that army is there. The only viable step forward that ensures the best chance of success is to scour the north while conscripting additional men to defend the walls.”
Gams nodded and walked around the table to clasp Gersius by the arm as the two old soldiers shared a moment.
“I know you are doing your best,” Gams said. “And you would never put this burden on your people if you could avoid it.”
“All of this could be avoided if I could find that army,” Gersius said. “If I can destroy it or prove it doesn't exist, I could march our third army to the front, and we could take the war to them.”
“We never believed they could hide for so long,” Sarah added. “Or we would have taken these measures sooner.”
“Of course,” Gams said with a nod. “But you understand the state of the war and where we stand. Even with a hundred thousand conscripts, we can't win this war by hiding behind our walls. Your time is limited, don’t make us wait too long.”
“I will begin the conscription immediately,” Gersius replied with sorrow filling his aura. “Better our people die fighting to hold the line than under their beds hiding.”
“This is all wrong!” Lilly shouted, causing heads to turn.
“Child, keep your wits in this chamber,” Sarah scolded.
“Why are we talking about this?” Lilly insisted, ignoring Sarah’s comment but turning to face her. “If you would just go speak to the Doan.”
“This again,” Sarah sighed and shook her head. “And what would you have me do? Fly into the arms of our enemy and give them every opportunity to kill me?”
“They are marching to this war under a lie,” Lilly argued. “Maybe we can show them the truth?”
“How?” Gersius asked. “How will you show them that not only are they wrong, but so were their parents, and their parents before them? How will we turn the hearts of those raised from children to seek conflict with us? We did our best to show Rose the truth, and she still embraced their beliefs and flew away. What can Sarah do that will change anything?”
Lilly had no idea how to answer that question, but in her heart, she felt that not trying was a crime. Everyone in the room was waiting for her answer, but all she could say was that she believed it was right.
“No more of this,” Sarah said over the bind as Gersius steered the conversation back to the matter at hand.
Thayle tried to comfort her, but Lilly didn't want to be comforted. She left the room even as Gersius tried to speak with her and stormed down the hall. She broke into tears when he called over the bind and asked her to forgive him. She honestly didn't blame him as she knew his heart too well. Gersius cared about the people, and this decision caused him great pain. She knew he was only making it because if he didn't, they would die anyway.
She exited the central fort and returned to the walls to stare into the distance. The Doan were massed just out of sight and testing their defenses daily. Her family was planning to send forces to sweep the north in a suicidal effort to find the missing army while forcing others to march to their deaths.
The pain that welled inside tore at her heart, and in a moment of desperation, she went for the ramps down. Making her way to a back area, she left the camps and went into the open plains until far enough out that she was alone. Here she changed and took her dragon form before flying west, going over the walls in search of the Doan.
She pinned all her hopes on finding these wise ones and opening a dialog. She knew Sarah could do a better job than she could, but Sarah wouldn't go. She flew inside the clouds to avoid being seen and looked down as the landscape rolled by. Less than an hour later, she flew over a massive camp filled with tents and fires. She was awestruck by the vast pens of bandersooks before thousands of round tents. The number of Doan arrayed against them was vast and stretched beyond her sight.
She looked for the blue tents but didn't see them, so she flew on as the gray skies shadowed the land. Eventually, she found a wide river that meandered across the land like a snake. Lilly deduced that this must be the serpentine, a river Gersius often referred to as the rightful border of their empire. The land beyond the river looked almost the same as the land before it, but slowly it gave way to broken hills and crags.
Lilly began to feel tense as the hours went by, and she saw nothing. Then, as she climbed over a hill, she spotted a dozen people at the shores of a small stream. She circled above to get a better look and determined they were women washing clothes. All of them were Doan judging by the colored skirts, but none looked particularly special. She decided that her mission was too important to turn back now. If she could find these wise ones and go back to report that they were willing to talk, she could delay the terrible conscription. However, if she didn't turn back soon, her family would notice her missing.
With a desperate need, she descended from the clouds and circled down. She was halfway to the ground when something happened below, and women began to scatter. Lilly saw a large dark shape charging down the stream's edge with what looked like a row of spikes on its back. She focused her sight on the creature as it bore down on the women with great speed. It looked like a large bear, but its head was bony, and it had a long snout. She had no idea what the creature was, but the women were clearly in danger, so she folded her wings and dived with claws outstretched.
The creature caught up to one of the women and swiped her with a powerful claw. Blood flew into the air as the woman screamed and fell, but a dark shadow descended on the beast. It howled as Lilly's claws sunk into that furry back as she swooped by and carried it into the air. She casually tossed it, allowing the fall to do the work so she could return quickly to the injured woman.
As she came about, two other women were already rushing to the wounded ones side. Lilly touched down nearby and stalked in rapidly as the two other women stepped back and bowed their heads. Lilly paid them little attention as she reached out a claw and placed it carefully over the dying woman. She lifted her voice in song, praying to Balisha for healing as golden light flashed beneath her scaled grasp. When she lifted her hand away, the woman looked up with startled eyes. She pleaded with Lilly to forgive her as the other two helped her to her feet. She backed away, thanking and praising Lilly as one of the scaled lords.
Lilly watched her go to rejoin the bulk of women a safe distance away but was left with the two who had come to the rescue.
“Greetings, great mother of the scaled lords,” one of them said. “Truly, we are honored that you have shown such favor on us.”
“Favor?” Lilly repeated, and she stared at them. One was tall and lean, the other a bit shorter and more robust. Both women wore skirts full of colored bands, and their wrists were adorned with metal loops and gold bracelets. Both women had dark hair, but the tall one wore hers to one side while the other had it tied back. They came right up to Lilly and then bowed their heads before speaking.
“I wasn't trying to curry favor,” Lilly said as she looked directly at them. “I am here to find the wise ones of the Doan. Could you tell me where they are?”
“I am Lacindra, and this is Jusa,” the tall woman said. “We are wise ones of the Doan.”
“You are the wise ones?” Lilly exclaimed excitedly.
“Yes, mother of the scale,” Jusa replied and smiled at Lilly.
“What Jusa means is we are two of them. There are many more back at the encampment,” Lacindra explained. “What brings you to seek us out? Has the master once again sought our aid in tempering the Doan’s battle lust?”
“What? No,” Lilly said and struggled to think of what to say. She lowered her head to look the women in the eye and lower her voice so the others would not overhear. “I am a dragon of the empire, and I wanted to meet you so I could understand why you are at war with us.”
“You are one of the dragons who betray her blood?” Jusa asked.
“No,” Lilly said earnestly. “I didn’t even know this war was going on until I was dragged into it. I have been trying to find out why we are fighting and maybe find a way to stop it. I met some of your scouts in the mountains, and they said that only the wise ones had the authority to speak of such things with me.”
The two women exchanged a confused looked, then turned back to Lilly to once again bow their heads.
“You want to talk to us about why we are attacking you?” Lacindra asked.
Lilly sighed and decided to explain her belief that dragons should not be divided. She had no idea they were at war until a dragon arrived in her valley and tried to kill her. She told the story of how a lone priest saved her life, and because of his act of kindness, she agreed to help him. She was careful not to use Gersius's name for fear it would evoke a hostile reaction. She left out many details but told enough of the story to make them understand. She hadn't wanted to be involved in this, but they kept attacking her, and she didn't understand why.
“Is it possible this one is not the enemy we think she is? Jusa asked Lacindra.
“She did save Ussila,” Lacrindra replied as she took on a calculating look. “Law would dictate we consider her an enemy, but her kindness cannot be ignored. She has saved the life of one of our blood. We are honor bound to consider
her a friend.”
“The others may not see it that way,” Jusa insisted. “She is probably the priestess of the false goddess. That is how she healed with a song.”
“I am a priestess of….” Lilly began, but Lacrindra put up a hand.
“Please do not utter that name here!” she shouted and looked away as if unable to bare Lilly's presence. “You must understand our ways are not yours, and there are ways to insult us that cannot be forgiven.”
“This is what I need to know,” Lilly insisted. “I want to learn your ways to find some means for us to live in peace.”
“She wishes to learn our ways?” Jusa said and looked at Lacrindra. “Is this permitted?”
“Is it permitted for us to turn away her act of salvation?” Lacrindra replied. “She is of the noble blood of dragons despite the people she fights for. She deserves respect for that alone.”
“But the others?” Jusa pressed.
“Will have to be told of her rescue,” Lacrindra replied. “At the very least, she has earned the right to stand before the council and present her plea.”
“You intend to take her to the encampment?” Jusa asked.
“I would not dare to handle such a delicate matter without involving the entire council. But we must tread carefully; the war chiefs are already sick of our meddling. The last debate nearly drew blood when we refused to let them march on the walls. They may see her and think this an opportunity to inflict a wound on the enemy. We will have to vouch for her character and invoke the right of Tashin to ensure her safety.”
“A wise decision,” Jusa agreed. “She must go back to the camp with us.”
“Will this take long?” Lilly asked. “I will be missed if I am gone much longer.”
“A matter such as this takes time,” Lacindra replied and turned to call out to the distant women. She ordered them to finish their washing and return to the camp, then turned to Lilly with another bow.
“If you wish to speak with us, then come. We will ensure your safety while you are here to speak.”
Lilly felt tense as the women beckoned her to follow, but she had to see this through. She agreed to go back to their camp and meet with the others hoping it would lead to a breakthrough. She headed off, following the two women into the hills, praying this wasn't a mistake. Perhaps this was why she wasn’t in the dream and why Gersius always pointed to a star in the west.