Burn(94)

All annihilation was mutual in the end.

“I still feel if I’d had any of this information earlier,” the general was saying, somewhere distant to Kazimir’s thoughts, “Seattle could have been saved.”

“How many people died when you bombed a mountain you promised not to, General?” Kazimir replied, still barely paying attention.

The blues were guardians of this secret human/dragon knowledge, and they had gone to great lengths across many worlds to ensure the survival of both species. Which was really only one species and its personified (dragonified?) aspirations. Every human would be a dragon if they could. Why else were there people like the Believers? Kazimir himself was proof. He was born human, but had an exceedingly powerful drive that would have driven him mad had he not accidentally found his way to the Russian Wastes two hundred years ago. They had granted him his true form and begun to teach him the ways of dragons, thinking him the best vessel to counteract the prophecies to come.

In that, they had been wrong. He had not been enough to stop the destruction of the last world. It angered him, all this loss. Dragons regretted very little, but he knew he would never shed this failure.

On the other hand, as he had tried to explain to Sarah, perhaps this was the version that saved the most. Or perhaps in the next world, the next Kazimir would find a way to save absolutely everyone. As he’d said, he would never know for sure, and that was hard, especially for a scholar.

Either way, he felt it in his dragon bones, his dragon blood: the explosion of magic that had created dragons in all the other worlds was finally about to happen in this one.

“And that will be something to see,” he said.

The general looked irritated. “Are you even listening to me, dragon?”

“Forgotten my name so quickly?” Kazimir replied, with a smile that clearly irritated the general even more. Kazimir glanced over at Dernovich and his daughter. The man had kept his promise, had been an ally in both the parameters of this interview and the interview itself, stopping the general from being too rude or too threatening. A good man, with a good daughter.

Allies, he thought. I have allies here. And a friend, a human friend, in the really quite special Sarah Dewhurst.

It was a pity they were going to lose Malcolm, who Kazimir found quite handsome. For a human. This world would need good men and women in the days to come.

Kazimir made a decision.

“Let me tell you about your future, General.”





Epilogue


THEY WALKED OUT behind the barn, away from the farmhouse, away from the hustle and bustle of the soldiers. Malcolm had agreed to an interview later. Kazimir was in his. Sarah had gladly agreed to be next. No one expected or could have known what they were about to do.

Sarah and Malcolm—and Jason, who’d come along out of curiosity—walked past Bess, Mamie, and Eleanor, oinking happily as they saw Sarah. The three humans went behind the barn, and Malcolm took the Spur out of his pocket.

“They’re going to be really mad when they find out it wasn’t actually destroyed, just stolen,” Jason said.

“Do you trust a weapon this powerful with someone who’d nuke a mountaintop?” Malcolm said. “I don’t even trust myself with it.”

“You realize what you’re going back to,” Sarah said. “A world where you might see more than a mountaintop nuked. They might already be dropping bombs there.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “I have to find him.”

“It’s been days,” Sarah said. “He could be anywhere.”

“Wherever he is, I left him in a pile of trouble. I have to get him out of it.” He met her eyes, as he so rarely had in this world. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry for everything that led to this. I’m sorry for coming to kill you.”

“You failed, though,” Sarah said, with a slight smile, “so that turned out okay.”

“Everything I was ever taught was a lie.” He looked at the Spur in his hand. “But it still led to the right place.”

He was surprised when he felt a sudden pressure of arms around him. Sarah was hugging him. He slowly put one hand on her back to return it. He would probably never see her again. This unknown girl who had played the largest part in shaping his life and who he had only actually known for the briefest few days.

She let him go. “I’ll ask you one last time,” Sarah said. “Are you sure?”

“I have to,” Malcolm said. “I love him.”

“Love him?” Jason said, looking confused. “Like a brother?”

Sarah stepped away, bringing Jason with her. Malcolm took a deep breath. There was magic in this world now. Too much. It would cause trouble. But it also was enough to make the Spur of the Goddess work again.

He touched it into the ground and said the words. An aura started to glow.

He would find Nelson, one way or another. If Nelson was in jail, he would break him out. If he was on the run, Malcolm would get him to safety. He would offer his love, offer an apology and amends, offer, at the very least, to take him away from a world at war. But he would find him. And he would offer him his hand. He could only hope Nelson would take it.

The aura opened, smaller this time, less out of control. It was all he needed. Malcolm took one last look at Sarah and Jason, who were holding hands again. He nodded to them, then—grabbing the Spur as he went—he stepped out of this world and into the next, intent on finding his love.