“This is not our way.”
“It is not our way to let others stand against our will. These new beings, they contest with us.”
Ashen-Shugar looked skyward, regarding those signs that indicated Draken-Korin was correct about the struggle for power between the newly aborning gods. “Yes, that is so.” He remembered those other star-faring races they had faced, the mortal beings who had fallen before the Dragon Host. “But they are not like others. They also are formed from the very stuff of this world, as are we.”
“What does that matter? How many of our kin have you killed? How much blood has passed your lips? Whoever stands against you must be killed, or kill you. That is all.”
“What of those left behind, the moredhel and the elves?” He used the terms that had come to differentiate between the slaves of the household and the slaves of the fields and woods.
“What of them? They are nothing.”
“They are ours.” Ashen-Shugar felt a strange presence within himself and knew the other, the one whose name often eluded him, was causing him to be filled with alien cares.
“You have grown strange under your mountains, Ashen-Shugar. They are our servants. It is not as if they possessed true power. They exist for our pleasure, nothing more. What concerns you?”
“I do not know. There is something” - he paused, as if hearing a call to some other place - “something wrong in the ordering of these events. I think we risk not only ourselves, but the very fabric of the universe.”
Draken-Korin shrugged and began returning to his dragon. “What matter? If we fail, then we are dead. What matter if the universe ceases with us?” Draken-Korin returned to his dragon. Mounting, he said, “You ponder issues that are meaningless.”
Draken-Korin flew off and Ashen-Shugar was left to face these odd, new feelings within himself.
Time passed, and the Ruler of the Eagles’ Reaches watched the final work upon Draken-Korin’s city. When it was done, Ashen-Shugar came and found his people once more in council. He walked along a broad avenue, one lined with tall pillars, each adorned with a tiger’s head carving. He was mildly amused by Draken-Korin’s vanity.
Walking down a long ramp, he reached the chamber within the earth. He found the vast hall filled with the Valheru. Alma-Lodaka, she who called herself Emerald Lady of Serpents, said, “Have you come to join us, Father-Husband?” She was flanked by two of her servants, created in open imitation of Draken-Korin’s. They were snakes given arms and legs, grown as large as the moredhel. Amber eyes flickered with nictitating membranes as they fixed upon Ashen-Shugar.
“I have come to witness folly.”
Draken-Korin drew his black blade, but another, Alrin-Stolda, Monarch of the Black Lake, cried, “Spill Valheru blood and the compact is void!”
The Lord of Tigers resheathed his sword. “It is well you come late, or we should have seen an end to your mockery.”
Ashen-Shugar said, “I have no fear of you. I only wish to see what you have fashioned. This is my world, and that which is mine is not to be threatened.”
The others regarded him with cold eyes and Alrin-Stolda said, “Do what you will, but know our purpose cannot be balked. As mighty as you are, Ruler of the Eagles’ Reaches, you cannot oppose us all. Watch as we do what we must.”
In concert, under Draken-Korin’s direction, a great magic was forged. For an instant Ashen-Shugar felt a gut-wrenching pain, which passed almost instantly, leaving only a faint memory. A giant stone appeared upon the floor of the hall, a flat-topped, circular green thing with facets, glowing like an emerald lit with inner fire. Draken-Korin came to stand over it, and placed his hand upon it. It pulsed with energy as he said, “Behold the final tool. The Lifestone.”
Without comment, Ashen-Shugar withdrew from the hall, marching back toward the waiting Shuruga. A voice from behind caused him to turn and he saw Alma-Lodaka hurrying after.
“Father-Husband. Will you not join us?”
He felt a strange urgency toward her, almost as when the heat came upon her, but different. He did not understand the odd feeling. It is affection, came the voice of the other. He ignored that voice and said, “Daughter-Wife, our Brother-Son has begun that which spells final destruction. He is mad.”
She looked at him strangely. “I don’t know what you mean. I do not know that word. We do what we must. I had wished to have you at my side, for you stand as mighty as any of us, but do what you will. Oppose us at your risk.” With no further words, she left him and returned to the hall where the next great magic would be undertaken.
Ashen-Shugar mounted his dragon and returned to the Eagles’ Reaches.