On Fire's Wings - Christie Golden [118]
“DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE?”
She opened her mouth, and found it dry. No words came forth. Her gut clenched in horror. She had expected that at this moment, she would know the answer to this question, but she was as ignorant and frightened now as when she first dreamed this.
She shook her head mutely. The Great Dragon shook its own scaly head, opened its mouth again and then suddenly Kevla was engulfed in fire. She screamed in agony and curled in on herself. Surely this was its judgment, its punishment for lying with Jashemi, her own blood—
The fire was gone. Shaking, she opened her eyes to see the Dragon still staring at her with its horrible, yellow, implacable gaze.
“DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE?”
Kevla had thought she would never again weep, but felt her eyes burn with tears as she answered, tentatively, “I—I am Kevla Bai-sha.”
And she screamed as the wave of fire from the Dragon’s mouth washed over her again, causing no injury but terrible pain. She clapped her hands over her ears, sobbing, trying not to hear the question; perhaps if she didn’t hear it she wouldn’t have to respond to it—
“DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE?”
She couldn’t look at the Dragon. Curled on the ledge, she whispered, “I am the daughter of Tahmu-kha-Rakyn.”
A third time the fire enveloped her, and she almost lost consciousness. But the merciful blackness only teased her, and again came the question.
And again, and again. Each time, she tried to say something, anything, that might satisfy the fearful creature. Each time, she failed.
Sister of Jashemi. Daughter of Keishla. Servant of the House of Four Waters. Nothing was right, nothing appeased the horrible monster, and Kevla wished that her father had cut her throat when he had the chance.
“DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE?”
Kevla was not even looking at it now. She was lost in agony and fear, her mind dancing on the brink of madness. She was nothing without her name, her beloved brother, her work, her identity in this world. She wondered if the pain she was enduring each time the Dragon breathed a sheet of flame upon her naked skin was anything like what Jashemi had felt when she had unwittingly killed him, unleashing the full force of her passion upon the one person in the world she cherished most.
She heard his voice again, the last words Jashemi-kha-Tahmu had uttered before she had reduced his beautiful body to a handful of ash, as he arched above and inside her—
My love, you are fire!
Kevla’s breath caught. She blinked and wiped her hair, salty and stiff with dried sweat, from her face. The words echoed again, almost as if he were here with her, speaking them to her.
Oh, Jashemi….
My love, you are Fire!
“DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE?”
Her lips barely moving, terrified of giving the wrong answer yet again, Kevla whispered, “I am Fire.”
The silence was absolute. Kevla could hear her ragged breathing, her own heart thundering in her ears.
Slowly, fearfully, she lifted her head, and gazed into the face of the Great Dragon. She sensed that he waited, that she needed to say this again, to claim it, to believe it.
Slightly louder, she said, “I am Fire!”
And then the Dragon opened its jaws and she cringed, bracing herself for the inevitable assault of flame. Instead, the Dragon roared, its tail splashing the liquid fire, its wings beating and sending a powerful wind that lifted Kevla’s hair. The sound assaulted her ears, penetrated to her bones, and Kevla opened her mouth in a soundless cry.
The ledge beneath her crumbled and she fell. Her body limp, she plunged into the liquid fire without struggling. She had expected the scalding heat of the Dragon’s flame, but instead the thick fluid wrapped her like a blanket. She floated in its depths, eyes closed, feeling the liquid slowly flow into her mouth and ears, muffling sound, silencing speech. She was drowning in fire, but there was no fear, no struggle. She felt like she had come home.
Then something solid and hotter than the lava of the volcano’s heart positioned itself beneath her, and she felt herself lifted