“I don’t have one.”
“And once again, I don’t believe you,” Kihrin said.
Relos Var vanished. The portal wall vanished.
Relos Var—the real Relos Var—stepped forward to Kihrin. “Then stab me,” he told Kihrin, “but the moment you stick me with that little piece of metal, I’ll revert to my true form—” He glanced around the tavern. “Which is considerably larger than this room. So Urthaenriel won’t protect you—or your friends—from being smeared against the bedrock. I’ll heal. But you?” He shrugged. “Thaena’s quite busy killing demons at the moment, but I assume she’d get around to Returning you at some point.” Var glanced at Janel. “And you. But probably not anyone else.”
Kihrin set the edge of Urthaenriel against Relos Var’s neck. “You’re bluffing.”
Relos Var smiled. “Am I?”
Another gate opened.
Kihrin didn’t look away from Relos Var, lest this prove a distraction. But the wizard seemed just as surprised by the gate as anyone else.
Relos Var’s eyes widened. “Thurvishar?”
The Lord Heir of House D’Lorus ran through the open portal, which briefly showed a watery expanse and a sky preparing for dawn. He closed the gate, turned around, and then drew up short as he took in the scene in front of him.
“Is this a bad time?”
Brother Qown said, “Thurvishar, what are you doing here? You were supposed to wait—”
“I did,” Thurvishar protested. “That’s why I’m here. Morios just climbed out of Lake Jorat. He’s attacking Atrine.”
54: THE PROBLEM WITH TRUST
Jorat Dominion, Quuros Empire. Three days since Kihrin had a realistic sense of the odds
Before anyone else could say a word, Thurvishar reopened the gate behind him. This time, the point of view was much higher up over Atrine. Someone cursed as the portal framed a nightmare scene.
Urthaenriel’s edge left Relos Var’s neck; Kihrin couldn’t stop himself from staring. The night sky through the portal was lightening gradually—they had been up all night—but Atrine itself glowed with mage-light and fire. The flickering light highlighted the edges of a colossal shape, as it demolished a section of the white quartz wall surrounding the city. Screams echoed, audible even from this side of the gate.
If the scale hadn’t deceived him—and Kihrin didn’t think it had—then Morios towered in comparison to Aeyan’arric. Morios even dwarfed the other dragon Kihrin had seen: Sharanakal. Morios was gargantuan. And once the light hit the dragon’s scales just right—
“Are those—are those swords? Are those dragon’s scales swords?” Kihrin glanced over at Janel. “Why didn’t anyone mention the dragon is covered with swords?”
Thurvishar shook his head. “They’re not really swords, but they’re just as sharp and lethal. But it’s not just on the surface—Morios is metal all the way through.”
“How do you kill a dragon made from metal?” Ninavis muttered.
The dragon smashed a tower of the duke’s palace.1 Pieces of stone flew, some hurtling straight at the open portal. Thurvishar waved a hand to close the gate, but several chunks of stone made it through. Janel and Kihrin both ducked to the side as one of the missiles slammed into the bar where they’d been standing, smashing paneling to kindling.
Relos Var turned to Kihrin. “Now can we talk?”
Kihrin’s sword wavered in his hands.
He lowered Urthaenriel.
“Everyone stand down,” Ninavis called out.
Kihrin turned to Relos Var. “Explain how this is supposed to happen, us working together here. Explain it to me like I’m hearing it for the first time.”
Kihrin knew cons. He knew scams. His adoptive mother, Ola, had been fond of them. So he wanted to see if Relos Var’s story would change from what he’d told the others; he also wanted to see how the story didn’t change.
Relos Var pressed his lips together. “The only way you can permanently destroy a dragon—much as the only way you can permanently destroy their corresponding Cornerstone—is to annihilate both simultaneously. Every dragon has a matching Cornerstone. Unfortunately, while dragons can be slain in a variety of ways, the only method I know to destroy a Cornerstone is Urthaenriel. You can understand why I never bothered telling Duke Kaen where Morios laired; until we had Urthaenriel in our possession, fighting the dragon would have been futile.”
“You still don’t have Urthaenriel in your possession,” Kihrin pointed out.
Relos Var ignored the correction. “We also required the location of Morios’s Cornerstone, but since Senera has the Name of All Things, we had simply to ask. We destroy both Morios and his Cornerstone together, they both die forever.”
Kihrin felt a chill wash over his skin. “Go back to the part about destroying Cornerstones permanently—are you saying I didn’t shatter the Stone of Shackles?”
“Oh, you did,” Relos Var replied, “but it won’t stay broken. The Stone of Shackles will reform, and eventually, people will realize gaeshing is once again possible. Too late to put the demons back in their cages, unfortunately.”
Kihrin ground his teeth. “And the Stone of Shackles is the heart of which dragon?”
“This is an unimportant tangent.”
“Tell me, anyway.”
“Rol’amar.” Var growled the name like it was a personal insult. A fleeting expression of loathing crossed the wizard’s face.
Kihrin carefully filed away the name Rol’amar for future use.
“Much as I respect your desire to continue your staring contest,” Janel said, “perhaps we can indulge later? After evacuating Atrine?”
Both men looked over at her in surprise.
“I never said I’d go along with this,” Kihrin said.
Janel cocked her head and stared at him in turn.
Kihrin coughed. “All right, yes. I’m helping.”
“We can best help Atrine by destroying Morios,” Relos Var told Janel. “If you focus on evacuation first, you’re letting sentimentality cloud your judgment.”
“No, I’m not. If we don’t pull people out of Atrine—right now—we shall soon find ourselves facing a combination of raging fires and terrified, screaming souls. And such a recipe summons a special sort of connoisseur to dinner.”
Relos Var made a face. “Demons.”
“Exactly. They’ll swarm Atrine. I’d rather face one enemy at a time.” Janel looked back at Thurvishar. “Can you open a gate to the east Atrine bridge? That’s where the Marakori slums are located.”
“I see no reason why not. Where’s Senera?”
Relos Var scowled. “In Atrine. She was supposed to signal me when Morios arrived.”
Thurvishar stared at the man hatefully. “You didn’t hear from her, with a raging dragon on the loose? And you weren’t going to say anything? Damn it!”2 Thurvishar immediately reopened a portal and started to rush through. He stopped at the last second and turned to the room. “If the rest of you are coming along, do it now, or haggle with Relos Var for the privilege later.”