The Onyx Dragon by Marc Secchia Page A

alone was crazy enough to do so.
    “I’m a Shapeshifter, Leandrial. Why did you ambush us? This was unexpected and unkind.”
    Magic gushed over her like the most exquisite music playing upon her senses of hearing, touch and even taste, a delicious, outlandish, thrilling symphony seemingly born in another world. Yet behind this wealth of beauty lay an undercurrent of suppressed fury, of monstrous stresses barely held in check. For a moment, the Island-World seemed attuned to the cavernous hissing of Leandrial’s breath as clearly, to Pip’s perception, she restrained an urge to annihilate them all–her paws flexed on the volcanic rim, her shoulders bunching as though she contemplated tearing the mountain in two.
    Leandrial snarled, “How dare you censure me? I could squash this mountain and you with it.”
    Her impudent response had been a colossal blunder. Pip gasped, “I spoke hastily. I meant no disrespect, noble Dragon.”
    “Always hasty, you high-dwelling, short-lived creatures,” the Dragon grumbled at length, apparently accepting Pip’s sincerity at face value.
    “So, if destruction wasn’t your purpose …”
    “No. I came to speak of a critical need, Lesser Dragon called Pip.”
    Hence the stresses Pip sensed within the great beast, the undertone of regret leaching into her words, even in Island Standard. How could she help the Dragoness articulate what troubled her?
    She said, “Speak. Our ears hearken to your words.” Pip scowled at the air as the forms of archaic Dragonish interrupted her speech. Silver’s amusement tingled in her mind. She shut him out in order to concentrate on the Land Dragon.
    “I’ve new information to share,” Leandrial replied. “First, an explanation. Amongst Land Dragons, there is a particularly well-developed Dragon sense, the name of which translates as ‘Harmonic Inference’ in your tongue. Just as you perceive the harmonic potencies of my magic, so this same magic allows me to navigate the world below what you call the Cloudlands, in a manner similar to your physically limited sense of sight. Is this clear?”
    “Clear enough,” said Pip. Ay, clear that a world of meaning lay beneath what Leandrial had briefly outlined. “This harmonic magic is not limited to the material realm, correct?”
    “Of course not. Your small understanding shall have to suffice.”
    Bite your tongue, Pip! Master Kassik’s growl interrupted her thoughts.
    Fine. Now she had two larger Dragons to be annoyed at. She stilled the almost unbearable urge to launch a fireball at a boulder or crisp a berry-bush.
    “The power of Harmonic Inference allows a Land Dragon to sense many things, even creatures which should by rights not exist, such as the Dragon you call Shadow. I see disturbance and disharmony; I’m aware of the absence of harmony, and much of this disturbance exists in my realm beneath your Cloudlands. This is what has led me to believe that the traitor Shurgal stalks you, little ones–most certainly, Pip, that no-fire quisling of a Land Dragon is aware of your presence and power over the Balance.”
    “My power over the … uh, balance? What balance?”
    Briefly, Leandrial’s single eye lidded as she appeared to process a decision. I cannot articulate this in Human speech, little one. Listen closely. Our harmonic magic is closely attuned to the inner equilibrium of magic, which describes the sum of the interactions and interdependencies between every component of our world, from the smallest iota to the greatest forces in the universe; in cause, action and reaction, in the endless struggle between good and evil … all this is called the Balance of the Harmonies, and the protection of this Balance is the paramount task of Star Dragons, and the highest calling of any Land Dragon.
    Pip said, I thought the Star Dragons were dead. A myth.
    The only myth is the unbelief dimming your mind, little one. Leandrial’s jaw peeled open in a discomfiting Dragon smile that literally