SINGED
Chapter 11

In the morning, I sat alone on the beach. It had happened just as she said. We saw the light of morning together, and then she was gone, soaring up into the pale blue vastness to vanish in the distance.

There I sat, sun warming everything but my heart. In truth, this separation was inevitable. It was only a matter of time. I would have outlived her in the end, no matter what. I would have watched her grow old and die, and I would still be alone. The Human Condition was a desperate fragile thing.

Suddenly I despised it. It would only cause me pain. Whatever the fascination of human nature was for my kind, I saw what it was, a cruel hoax. The tendency of humans to love was fatalistic. A dragon in his right mind would never succumb to love. It was weak, self-destructive. Look what it had done to Miranda.

She had sacrificed everything, waiting until the last moment to neutralize the Hag when we could have done so before without risk. I was sure of it. If she had only found a way to tell me sooner. She had chosen to lose everything to give Lenoir a chance to choose another path.

Lenoir had cloaked her true nature until she had the medallion but once Miranda gave it to her, Lenoir had made no further attempts to shield her mind.

It was only then that her thoughts had been opened to me, and I had been stunned by her hateful unforgiving spirit. It was her intent and not the joining of medallions that triggers the spell that destroyed her. The reaction had been a direct result to the Lenoir’s hate. It had nullified her totally because at least as far as I could perceive, her hate was all that was left of her awareness. She was an agent of destruction, nothing else remained.

If ever there had been something more, something redeemable, it was gone. To make things worse, I identified with Lenoir, understood her. As a dragon, I was more than capable of the same all-consuming anger. We were more alike than I wished to admit. I pushed the thought from my mind angrily, and stood, wiping unwanted tears from my eyes as I did so.

Miranda was gone. I remained. As it had always meant to be. Several days passed. I barely moved. I longed to slither back into the earth.

“Brand!” someone shouted.

I blinked, turned. Sal and Cayn were trudging up the beach toward me.

“I knew you were too tough to go down with the ship,” Cayn said, grinning.

“I nodded, a faint smile tugging at my mouth.

“We washed up like drowned rats some leagues up the beach. Got caught in a cross-current, almost pulled us past the island entirely. Had to hide in the trees to avoid that witch thing that was creeping about,” Sal said.

“Are you alone?” Cayn asked.

“Yes,” I said. “She’s gone.”

Sal and Cayn looked at each other.

“Miranda, I mean, the Captain defeated it,” I said, “but she was destroyed too.”

Sal and Cayn looked stunned.

“It is just as Alister said,” Sal murmured.

My eyes narrowed.

“Why,” I growled, “what did he say?”

“Just as you described,” Sal replied sadly. “If we found the Hag, the Captain would defeat her but be lost as well most likely. She told him about the medallions long ago before her sister went missing, about her history with the Hag.”

“But she wasn’t cursed until the ship came,” I interjected. “She told me.”

Sal shook his head.

“I don’t know about the curse, just what Alister told me. He said if that happened we should look for the Hag’s treasure.”

Cayn said nothing. His characteristic grin had vanished.

“I see,” I said. “So, you work for Alister, not the Captain, despite what you claimed about loyalty to her.” My eyes were blazing.

“The Captain knew,” Sal replied, abashed. “We were loyal to both. They were partners after all.”

I scowled, confused.

“Is that what the Captain told you or Alister? Did she know of the treasure?”

“I assume so. She knew about the Hag. I was there when Alister wrote about her,” Sal said.

I shook my head to clear it. Something was wrong, but Sal was telling the truth. I could read enough of his thoughts to be sure. When someone is consciously lying, the lie floats on top of their other thoughts like oil upon water. I can almost always tell when someone is lying.

“I guess she didn’t care about the treasure with her sister missing and all,” Cayn said, “but like Sal said they was partners.”

I turned away. Dragons replace it hard to overlook the mention of treasure.

“Let’s try to replace this treasure,” I said. “At least it will give some meaning to her sacrifice.”

“Right,” Cayn agreed, “it is what she would have wanted.”

I nodded silently. One thing I was sure of was that Caynwas lying.