They spent the night sleeping in the tower in Krazaa. It was a night without nightmares or visits from the void. Melissa woke up early the next morning to quiet whispers in the dark. The sun seemed to be lazy these days and had left them with a dim light that cast shadows on the walls.
At first, Mel didn’t know where the sound came from, but as her eyes adjusted, she saw Hanon and Luthel standing over at the sundial to the west.
“There is something in what she said.” Hanon’s lips seemed to move slowly to the sound.
Luthel shook his head. “It’s not our way. You know the stories. You know who we are.”
“But what if I’m not like you?”
Luthel shook his head again. This time, a sigh escaped his lips as he folded his hands over his chest. “Are you really this foolish? To listen to what that book said. What Melissa said. You’re not a dragon. I refuse to believe that.”
“Then aren’t you the one who’s foolish? The one who doesn’t want to listen to the truth?”
“Watch your tongue and remember who you’re speaking to,” Luthel said, a frown spreading over his forehead.
Mel felt a shiver run down her spine. She’d never heard Luthel speak like this to Hanon. Only to herself. But she’d always thought it was because she was different. She was from the valley and one of the dragon cult. Did he really speak like this to his own son, too?
“I know what things look like,” Luthel said, his voice softer than before. “But we can’t trust her. She could have planted this. Made it all look like how she wanted it to look. To make you doubt the void’s plans. To make us both doubt where we come from.”
“Really?” Hanon’s voice was low and hesitant now. “But what more is there to believe? If I’m not a dragon, then what am I?”
“Think about it,” Luthel said, placing his hand on Hanon’s shoulder. “The powers you have are from the void, gifted to you so that you could return to one another when the time was right. These gifts, the void wouldn’t have given to its enemies. To these dragons.”
Hanon stared into his father’s eyes, not shrugging away from his embrace, but not stepping any closer either. “Then why didn’t you let the void change me?”
Luthel’s hand slipped away from Hanon’s shoulder. “Perhaps I should have let it happen. I couldn’t lose my son this soon. I couldn’t bear letting the void take you now. But when you’re older and I’m gone, you will fulfill your destiny.”
Mel sat up from her position on the floor, feeling the air shift around them. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing from Luthel. He wanted his son to become a shadow one day? It just seemed so strange after everything they’d done to save Hanon from that very destiny. She had a bad taste in her mouth as she stood from the floor and took a step toward them.
Hanon’s eyes connected with hers and he softly shook his head. Luthel’s back was still turned to Mel, but she wanted to walk up to them. To make him see that she’d heard him. Hanon wasn’t alone in this. But Hanon seemed to read her mind and shook his head once more.
Mel took a step back and released the breath she’d been holding.
“If you help her out of the wastes and make sure she gets back to the valley safely, then I’ll fulfill my destiny when you’re gone. I promise.”
“Why would I help her now that I know what she is?” Luthel asked.
Hanon shook his head, his eyes still glancing over at Mel once in a while, making sure she stayed out of it. “We don’t know what she is. The only thing we know is that she has powers like me. So if you believe I’m not one of them. Then perhaps she is also one of the void’s chosen ones.”
“But in that case, shouldn’t we make sure she gets to the void, then?”
Mel’s eyes grew wide as Luthel uttered the words. Would he really give her over to the void? She swallowed hard, taking another step back from the two of them.
Hanon shook his head. “Not if we want her to infiltrate the valley. I know it’s what the void wants. Why else do you think we haven’t been attacked by any shadows yet?”
Luthel’s hand scratched at the beard along his chin, looking like he was weighing things over. “Did the void speak to you last night?”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Several days ago, in fact, I just didn’t want to say anything until I was sure of not being overheard.” Hanon’s eyes again slipped away from Luthel and landed on Melissa.
She shrunk down to the floor and resumed her sleeping position from before, turning her back to Hanon and Luthel. She knew Hanon wanted her to do this, but she didn’t understand why he was giving her this opportunity. If he wanted to, he could have told Luthel that she had heard everything. She didn’t understand what was in it for Hanon.
“We will do what the void tells us. We’ve been running from our destinies for too long. I know I’ve defied its will, but sooner or later I want to return to normal. There is no life for us in the valley. There never has been. I just wish I could have seen the truth sooner. That I was being played by the enemy. I know now that there was never anything we could have done to change your stars. You and the void are one. I will not defy my god again.”
“I know,” Hanon said. “We’ll be back home before you know it.”
Mel heard footsteps walk through the room and someone sitting down in the chair by the desk. She heard the creaking of wood and the shuffling of feet. She listened to the sounds like they were her last lifeline. Her mind whirled with the possibilities and didn’t know if she should trust either Hanon or Luthel after what she’d heard.
Each second that ticked past felt like an eternity, and eventually Mel took a gamble and started to stir. At first, she stretched her limbs out and faked a yawn, then lifted her eyelids and tried to keep her eyes from frantically searching the room. Luthel sat in the chair by the desk and Hanon was still standing by the sundial. This time, his back was turned to her and his eyes were on the horizon.
Mel stood once again, nodding to Luthel and giving him a weak smile. He stared at her, his mouth drawn into a tight line, but he didn’t make a move toward her. She shifted her feet and hesitated only for a second before striding up to Hanon with a confidence she didn’t feel.
She tilted her head to the side and stared out the window next to him, then her eyes shifted and sought his face. He was looking at her, and she knew his father was watching them both. Hanon gave her a small nod and then returned to staring out beyond the gate of Krazaa.
There would be no conversation, no assurance that he was on her side. She knew that. They couldn’t speak about what had just happened when Luthel was right here next to them. They needed more space. They needed privacy to come up with a plan, if Hanon was even on her side at all.
Mel wrung her hands before her body and wished she could just ask him. She wished Austin was with her and Gabriella, people she could really trust. She’d grown so accustomed to having people care for her and being on her side that she hadn’t seen this coming. The betrayal from Luthel felt both fresh and completely not what she’d been expecting.
The sun rose behind them and cast light on the view to the west. Mel saw a pair of white eyes on the other side of the wall and her stomach churned. They were waiting for her out there, just like they had for the dragon who’d once lived here. She watched the eyes as the sun kept rising and a shadowy figure emerged from the darkened landscape. It walked toward the gate for a moment, then the eyes connected with hers and a chill ran down her spine.
Mel turned back to Hanon, wanting to assure herself that he was seeing this too. He stood looking down at the figure with a frown on his forehead, and Mel relaxed a bit. It was easier when she knew she wasn’t alone. When she looked back at the same spot, the shadow was gone and the morning had officially begun.
#
They packed up their belongings once more and got ready to leave Krazaa, only they hadn’t talked about where they would go now. Mel knew from early this morning that Luthel wanted to hand her over to the void and make her into a shadow, but that Hanon had said they should take her to the valley as an infiltrator. All of this seemed too much for Mel to skirt around and hope Luthel didn’t figure out she’d overheard them, so she hadn’t been able to say much of anything at all to him. But now when they were almost done packing, she needed to make sure she knew.
“I need to get back to Aldrion,” Mel said. “The book said the dragon stones can’t be fixed. I need to let them know and make sure Gabriella and Austin are safe.”
Hanon stopped what he was doing and looked at her. But Luthel just kept packing down books from the shelves. “We need to get these back to the village. There might be some information here we can use hiding between the lies of the dragons.”
Mel looked over at Hanon, and he gave her a shrug. She exhaled a deep breath. “Luthel, could we talk about what our plans are? I need to get back to Aldrion.” She tried to say every single word with the same tone of annoyance that she usually used with him to not draw his suspicions.
Luthel looked up from his bag and gave her a sharp stare. “You think the people of the valley are more important now? What about the village? They need my help, too.”
Mel felt a sharp stab of anger hit her. “The village tried to kill your son and turn him into a shadow. Perhaps we should leave them and help the people who saved Hanon?”
“You didn’t save him,” Luthel said.
Mel looked over at Hanon and waited for him to join her. They had saved Hanon. It was just a blatant lie. Hanon shook his head and gave her a pleading look.
Mel put her hand in front of her. “Fine. You go back to the village and see if they will take you. Me and Hanon will go to Aldrion.”
“You can’t decide where my son goes,” Luthel said. “Who do you think you are?”
Before Mel had a chance to answer, Hanon finally cut in. “We will all go to Aldrion and help Melissa get into the valley safely. We owe her that after everything she has done for us and after we can return to the wasteland.”
Luthel’s eyes shifted to Hanon, and he stared at him. “Fine.” His gaze slid over to Mel again. “But I don’t want you to spread anymore lies to my son while we get there. I don’t want to hear a single word from you about the dragons again.”