Emir Leoquo Mahagan placed his hand on Ulani’s muscular back. She turned her head and met his charming grin with her coy smile. That smile was worth the entire world to Leoquo. Her pearly teeth set against the polished obsidian of her skin were wonders to his bright eyes. They said that the rains of Lake Dalazuli could cure a broken heart. Ulani’s smile could make a heart whole. And it did. For Leoquo.
“I love you, my pearl,” Ulani softly whispered.
Leoquo leaned in closer and adjusted the pearl on her necklace. In the Mahogany Isles, no man bonded his life’s mate if he could not reach the ocean floor with his heart. Leoquo had proven his devotion. The sultan’s son declared his love for Ulani as pure, dove into the depths, pushed beyond the point where his lungs were depleted, and was bestowed with Dalis’s Gift. Leoquo could breathe and move beneath Dalis’s Endless Blue as easily as he could on the ground.
“I love you too, my sky.”
Mahagan were unlike their neighbors to the northwest in Leveria; he wouldn’t consummate his bond until the proper ceremony was performed. Before then, the Mahagan had to sate their appetites with words and charismatic gestures. Tomorrow, that would change.
Tomorrow. It was to be the greatest day of his life. Ulani would become his wife and spearmate. After consummating their bond, Ulani would leap from the cliffs and Zafrir would bless her legs and spear the same way that Dalis blessed Leoquo. His ferocious-in-competition and timid-in-conversation life’s mate would be able to soar into the air and come crashing down with her spear while he moved with the fluidity of water on the ground.
But enhanced combat prowess was not why Leoquo was sublimely excited and filled with endless bliss. The Mahagan Spears rarely had to face more than pirates and local monsters that wandered out of the jungles or the waters. No. She was more than a spear to him. Ulani was the woman he wanted to spend his life with. His heart beat for her and hers beat for his. In one more day, their bond would be made complete, and Leoquo would be complete. Thoughts of their bonding overflowed in his mind like ocean creeping up a sandy shore at high tide. He couldn’t keep his mind on the proceedings going on in the Serena.
The tranquil rain massaged his shoulders like a mother’s touch. It always rained in the Everrain, the house of his family. His smiling eyes found his father sitting the Tranquil Throne. The sultan wore the extravagant plumed feathers of the Mahogany Isles and the lion cape of their family: the Mahagan. Sultan Leono Mahagan was the picture of the First Mahagan, the champion of the Love Queen’s Sixty-Four.
Leoquo dreamt of the day that he would sit the Tranquil Throne, a seat of mahogany and lapis lazuli, and be sultan to Ulani’s sultana. He hoped it was a faraway day. He knew he wasn’t ready to sit beside the Love Queen and the First Mahagan. No. Not yet. After he was bonded, he would take Ulani to Sapphirica. They would dine with the Leverian nobility, introduce themselves to King Gideon Sapphire and his family, and then journey to Mirrevar to see the lost citadel of the Love Queen and Covademara. Then, after at least another decade of studying under his father and serving his people as a spear, Leoquo would be ready to be the one on that chair. Only then would he fulfill his destiny to be the servant of the hundreds of thousands who dwelled on the white shores and within the tropic jungles of the nine islands where the mahogany trees grew. Until then, the sixty-four clans were unified and in good hands. No dangers would befall them while Sultan Leono Mahagan lived and Leoquo could be free to be just Ulani’s man before he was property to all men and women of the nine isles.
It was a slow, peaceful day in the Everrain’s Serena. Then again, that was completely expected. Leoquo thanked Meladon that the court was only held on Ovidon and Yadeen. His mind, eyes, and hands wandered to Ulani while the sultan talked with the chiefs and the merchants about small things. He counted the raindrops that hit his shoulder, wanting the day to end so that he could take Ulani to the white sands of Caleel and watch the sun set over the Endless Blue.
The final sunset of my life as half of myself. Tomorrow I will be made whole.
Looking back, he wished that tranquil, boring moment could have lasted for all eternity. He wished he could stand there with his arm around Ulani, savoring that moment, innocent and blissful. He wished he never lost that innocence.
He wished that he never seen the Shadow and the Chimaera.
The roars of lions and the screams of men and women came from beyond the Serena. The sultan paused in the middle of arbitrating a dispute between two rival merchants and all eyes gaped as a strange monster smashed through the mahogany walls of the Everrain, sending stone and wood through the audience. People screamed, warriors retrieved their spears, and the rain continued ever uninterrupted.
The massive horror had three heads: lion, ram, and serpent. The lion head alone was the size of any ten lions combined, with a maw thrice the size of the largest man Leoquo knew. The serpent trailed behind it, a long, scaly green tail ending in sharp teeth glistening with poison. The black head of the ram started to crackle as its ivory horns gathered lightning. The creature’s legs were covered in dark hair that would blend into the night, lion-like in the front and ram-like in the rear. A massive man with the brown, sandy complexion of fallen Isihla, sat atop the creature with a meladonite scythe in his right hand and a zamaelic grin on his face. The most haunting part of this monster of a man was his grey, lifeless eyes. A student of history, Leoquo had heard the stories about Isihlan Shadows and Celegan Chimaeras. Those were stories of faraway lands that never seemed real until the last moment of his innocence.
The beast proudly strode into the Serena as though it owned the whole world.
The Mahagan Spears were determined to send this beast back from whence it came. Alas, who could fight against such a foe?
Lightning arced from the ram’s horns and murdered several defenders before they reacted. The thundering was echoed by dozens of spears being drawn, most of them empowered spearmates.
Leoquo, Ulani, and the others charged at the beast with their spears. Female spearmates soared into the air while their partners moved like water toward the monster. Leoquo himself moved with fluidity, dodging attacks with unconceivable alacrity. The ram discharged more lightning. It might always be raining in the Everrain but never was there lightning. The thunder was accompanied by the charging of the lion and the thrashing of the serpent releasing its miasma. The shadowy rider disappeared, Duma’s head was torn from his shoulders, and the shadow reappeared with blood on his scythe’s edge before blinking out of existence once more.
The Mahagan Spears were hopelessly outmatched. Lightning tore the spearwives from the sky before they could pierce the monster’s evil hide. The wide sweeping of the serpent rendered spearhusband fluidity inert. The lion clawed down two men in a single swipe then bit off the head and torso of a windjumper whose spear scraped ineffectually against the creature’s magical hide. Leoquo reeled over as the serpent smashed into his abdomen. The serpent reared back, baring incisors the size of swords and twice as sharp. The monster shot out at him like a coiled spring.
Leoquo closed his eyes.
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A woman’s scream split the air and his heart. Ulani fell into his arms, and they crashed to the grass. Pearl teeth and obsidian skin. Pale blue eyes. Pale blue eyes unseeing for all eternity, never to glimpse another sunrise. Never to bond and be made whole.
Leoquo’s tears were neither tranquil nor serene like the rains of Dalazuli. No, they were sorrow and anger. They were the tears of a broken heart. He wrapped his arms around Ulani’s muscular back and wept. He screamed out his rage but did not release his sky. He would follow Ulani to Meladon’s Paradise, and they would greet the Fourteenth together. His half-life on this earth was no longer worth living as it could never become whole.
But the beast had stopped. The fighting had ceased. Leoquo grasped Ulani as powerfully as he could, but his arms were pried apart. Ulani was tossed aside, and the scythe was readied above him.
“No!” his father cried.
The shadowy man stepped back. The light bent around him and shadows danced on the sands of the Serena. His voice came straight out of a nightmare and was heavily accented. “This must be your seed, pretender.” A mighty kick took the air from Leoquo. A cruel laugh permeated the air. “He is pathetic. What kind of a weak man lets a woman protect him?”
Leoquo screamed as he leapt to his feet. He charged barehanded at the Shadow, moving with fluidity and grace despite his infinite rage. He wanted to die but first he would kill the monster that had slain his love.
The man disappeared in the blink of an eye as though he had never been anything more than a wicked ray of light. Leoquo swung his fists at the air, but nothing was there. The demon laughed as it rematerialized from shadow and effortlessly swept Leoquo off his feet with the handle end of his scythe. His mighty hand wrapped around Leoquo’s throat and lifted him into the air.
“Kill me!” Leoquo gasped.
The Shadow's lifeless eyes held nothing but evil and malice. “Not yet.”
The Shadow threw Leoquo several feet in the air and he landed hard on the sand. Leoquo felt broken, spirit and body. He arched his neck to look at the Shadow. The three-headed beast was no longer alone. It stood ahead of an army of lions and empagong. The two most sacred of creatures on the Mahogany Isle had turned against them. The lion was the symbol of his family and the empagong, the great tortoises, were the ancient protectors of their isles. Their betrayal was another stab into the center of Leoquo’s broken heart.
His father stood behind him and wrapped him in his arms. “Stay away, beast!”
The Shadow laughed sinisterly. He looked to the three-headed monster. “Is it time, Great Ezen?”
The three heads nodded and roared, hissed, and bleated approvingly. The beast moved forward with the Shadow beside it.
The Shadow spread his arms as he spoke. “Today is the luckiest day of your lives, pretenders.” His zamaelic grin rose higher.
Leoquo couldn’t suppress the anger. He yelled and screamed but his father held him back. Hot tears glided down his cheeks. He clenched his teeth. All he could see was water—tainted and impure water. The Shadow had poisoned Dalazuli’s rains with his darkness. Leoquo’s broken heart would not mend no matter how long the rain pattered down onto his shaven head.
The nightmarish voice rang out, “The Son of Conqueror and Queen, born atop the Goddess, the Great Ezen, the One Master of Celegana’s Earth, Daichin ezen Celegan, has decided that you shall have a choice in your fate!”
The Shadow laughed and Leoquo’s anger grew bigger than the massive, treacherous empagongs. His father held him tight, silently discouraging rebellion.
“What choice do we have!” Sultan Leono shouted. “Slavery or death! What choices are those! We have been a free people since the Love Queen unified us! We’re not beasts! We will not be tamed or chained!”
The Shadow stared at him maliciously. The three-headed beast’s lion head roared, shaking Leoquo’s soul and flooding it with fright. It made the mahogany trees in the Serena tremble.
“I was hoping you would choose death.”
The Shadow brandished his scythe and moved in to kill them. Leoquo scrambled to his feet but was instantly knocked back down by the scythe. The Shadow then disappeared and reappeared behind Leoquo’s father. He gripped Leono by the back of the neck and slammed his face into the Love Queen’s statue three times before discarding him into the sand. Leoquo stood to fight but the Serpent wrapped around him and constricted him. Leoquo felt his body breaking in the beast’s foul grasp. He fought for air but though he could breathe underwater, he couldn't breathe through suffocation. He set his eyes on Ulani and prepared to die.
“Is this your choice, pretender!” the Shadow roared, pointing his scythe at Leoquo.
Sultan Leono crawled, his face a ruin, and he met his son’s eyes. The serpent continued to squeeze. “Stop!” he cried. “I will pay any price!”
The shame Leoquo felt could have swallowed all the Endless Blue and still had room for more. His father would demean his people to save his worthless life. This was a betrayal of all he stood for and all his father had worked for.
The serpent tossed Leoquo at his father’s feet. Leoquo gasped for air, a sensation he hadn't experienced since diving for the pearl. Leono turned his head to the Love Queen’s statue beside the Tranquil Throne. “Fourteenth guide me,” he whispered, “help us find freedom.”
The Shadow laughed. “Freedom is not one of your choices, slave. You have been claimed by the Great Ezen. The Son of Conqueror and the Queen will unite the world. The Chimaera will not stop until it has tamed every man on Celegana’s Earth and made them one again!”
Leoquo stood. “What does he gain from our servitude? He is oceans away across the Endless Blue!”
The Shadow shook his head. His voice held terrible wrath. “Oceans away? Do you not recognize him? You stand before him, weakling pretender!”
The voice of nightmares resonated against the rain as he knelt before the three-headed beast. This deadly warrior wrung his hands and begged to the lion head. “Ezen, they are unworthy. We already have the Serpent and the Flame. We don’t need them! Let us be done with this! Let me end them!” The Shadow spoke to the beast with extreme jubilance. He was no more than a fanatical, but rabid wolf, leashed by a master who would stop at nothing to make everyone in the world just as obedient and fervent.
The three-headed beast shook all three heads.
“As you will, Great Ezen.” The Shadow stood up and addressed Leono. “Your options are thus...” He grinned. “You can be annihilated. The fathers and sons of your pathetic isles will be ravaged by your own lions as we fill your mothers and daughters with the seeds of Celegana’s chosen.”
Leoquo screamed again but his father held him back. He broke through and charged toward the Shadow. The lion’s terrible head met him. Skull crashed into skull and Leoquo dropped to his back, certain that he was concussed.
The Shadow raised his scythe for the merciful kill, but the lion head roared as the scythe descended. Leoquo’s vision blurred, he prayed to Meladon to let the scythe reunite him with Ulani... to end his suffering...
The scythe halted and the blade scraped against Leoquo’s bare chest, doing no more than drawing blood and marking his defeat with a scar that would never fade. The Shadow sighed, “Daichin ezen Celegan is most merciful. Sultan Leono,” the Shadow continued menacingly, “what do you think of your first option?”
Leoquo’s father spat in disgust. The Shadow laughed. “A wise man chooses the second choice. The Son of Conqueror and Queen is willing to spare you and your,” he stepped on Leoquo’s broken heart and pressed down, “pathetic heir if you complete a task for him.”
“I will do it! Let Leoquo go!”
The Shadow removed his foot, but Leoquo’s heart didn’t mend. He felt the rain from above. The rain was like tears from Meladon’s Paradise, tears from Ulani. Leoquo’s tears joined hers, though his spirt was trapped here without her.
All three of the beast heads made their noises of approval. The Shadow continued, “Leveria must fall, and you have been chosen to play a part in their demise. You will capture Daichin ezen Celegan’s empress. The Great Dreamer will be his! They will unite the world and restore her Wholeness! You will bring him the one called Alexia Bluerose: the Second Great Wizard!”
Rain fell, as it always did in the Everrain, and for the first time in a thousand years, a Mahagan sultan had fallen alongside it. The innocence of this place of peace, lost.