Chapter 30-Vital Memories
Makiar's brutality assaulted Tamli's thoughts as soon as Finca let him go and then landed behind him to carry his weight, reminding him that most of his past was still a mystery other than what little he had glimpsed during the fight with Amia in the abandoned lab. He watched his dragon stiffen, snarling softly as a dark shape neared them, and felt a similar response threatening to come from him. But he controlled himself, restrained the fury that pounded in his mind to go on the offense before he was attacked.
Follow the guiding dragon I sent, the ruby red dragoness commanded as Finca nudged him forward, keeping her own pace behind him. Dhran just woke up and is screaming his head off. I've tried all I can to calm him but nothing so far works. Now get down here!
He stifled a laugh from her words but knew the pain the man must be going through. It was hard enough waking up from having a sword drove into his brain that the prospect of anything else frightened him slightly. With a faint growl from Finca, a wave of weariness passed over him and he leaned against her side, struggling to even take another step or stand on his own feet. What had Amia done to him?
Shall I carry you, partner-of-my-heart-and-life? Finca hummed softly, watching as he pushed away from her shoulder and fought to keep his balance.
Not unless I fall and can't get up again, he promised, locking eyes with her for a moment before walking after the disappearing dragon who had already entered the underground complex.
It was a difficult trip. Sweat and blood from the sword wound that Amia had given him clouded his vision and, multiple times, he felt his strength nearly give out. He wasn't giving up though, although part of him wanted to take Finca up on her offer and just ride the rest of the way down to where Makiar awaited them. Stumbling over one of the steps as they descended from a long hallway, Tamli knew his injured leg was nearing its breaking point. With a snarl, he stopped and leaned against the wall closest to him, breathing heavily and twinging as a flurry of new memories assaulted him.
. . . Finca staring him down, fiercely defending three hatchling from him. He had betrayed her trust, naming one of the females after his dead mother who had taken her over two years prior to confront him about his destiny . . .
. . . Mhetra trying to lock talons around him to end the fight before both crashed to their deaths at the bottom of the cliff face that had seen two hatchlings murdered for simply existing. Instead, the dragon discovered that Tamli was more built for speed than he and threw him into the cliff wall, shattering one of his wings . . .
. . . His own mother trying to pin him to the floor with a controlled burst of her fear element. He ducked and returned the attack with a quick surge of light, hoping to throw her off so he could avoid more red-light shrieks that tore at his mind . . .
TAMLI! Finca's roar immediately broke him from the memories and he blinked, trying to push away from the wall and stand but only falling to the ground with a scream as murderous pain radiated from his left knee and throughout the limb.
He couldn't make out the guiding dragon as black spots danced before his eyes, but he had surely heard his dragon screeching his name. With a sure sense of her direction, he reached out for her only to find that she rejected his mental presence and set up thick walls around her mind. It confused him, wondering why she would not allow him entry into her mind so they could be one and discuss what he had seen.
Then it hit him. Dhran's scream from when the attack must have taken place resounded through his mind, echoing utter terror and fear. That was why he was here! He had been given a tool for the better use of healing one that needed the medicine. It was the reason that the clone of himself had even handed him the tiny bottle of red liquid anyway.
Sorry, he whispered as Finca came into view, her white scales having been the only object he could see for several minutes since the memories had invaded his fragile mind. Memory flashes. They come so quickly I . . . He paused, glancing up at her. Take this to him.
With his only working arm, he offered her the bottle of life-saving liquid. She sniffed it for a moment before gingerly taking it in her mouth and turning to go deliver the needed help for Dhran. Tamli placed a hand on the wall behind him, biting his tongue for fear of a scream that would throw Finca off the mission he now had for her. His leg burned and now his non-existing right shoulder began to throb with steady pulses of agony.
Go, he hissed, shoving her snout away as she turned her head to face him. Get that to Dhran, then come back for me, understood?
Yes, Finca answered, her tone sorrowful. She wanted to stay with him but there was another who needed more help than he did at the current moment. I'll be back as soon as I can.
As she set off, another memory began, pushing his body to limits far past what he thought he might have ever had. He almost wished he could call her back but she needed to do this not just for him but for all the creatures living down in the underground tunnel system. If she failed . . . He didn't want to think what would happen and how the many dragons who lived here would react.
. . . A gentle wind dancing all around him, humming softly in a language he was unfamiliar with. Slowly the words came, but, because of his newness to the system of life, he was unable to decipher them. He liked the breeze though. It felt soft against his newborn skin. He wanted more than a calm gust around him however. Where was his mother or father? His new eyes searched the area around him, finally stopping on the limp form of a teenage girl. Her greyish-white hair obscured her face but blood dripped from between her legs, a thin cord connecting him to her. The shock was too much. He was hungry and a bubbling cry rose from within him. If that was his mother than he was . . . barely alive, hardly awake in the cruel world which had claimed the life of the woman who had carried him inside for nine months . . .
Tamli was surprised as the vision ended. Usually it wouldn't end on its own, with someone, instead, breaking the contact between the dream and reality. But this time it had faded back into the blackness of his mind, past the immovable border in his thoughts.
He also found himself with his good hand covering his mouth, holding back a choking sob that threatened to overtake him. Slowly he lowered the calloused fingers and felt . . . tears streaming down his cheeks. The memory had felt so real but was it? Had he been an orphan right after birth? His mother dying from the blood loss or was it something else? In that instant, he let his emotions loose for the first time since his awakening to find Finca beside him and he with no recollection of her, sobbing hard over all he had lost and even more over what was still hidden from his amnesia-induced mind state.
Finca hurried back as soon as she could, taking a part of the ruby liquid with her to treat Tamli's wounds. He looked so miserable; his eyes had lost their bright luster and he has barely said a word during their return flight. She understood the feeling of abandonment he must be going through with no memory and then finding the clones of himself held in a place she dared never to return to again during her lifetime.
He had said something about memory flashes before she departed, right? Was that what was bothering him? Something was, otherwise his mind would be as clear as day to her probing thoughts. They had spent so much time as a joined pair that she knew him as well as he had once knew himself before Amia had attacked and taken from him the one thing that plagued his very soul.
While she knew from him what had happened during his years of three-soul one-body experience with Santerous and Amia, it frightened her to her very core to have to tell him the horrid things he had done at Amia's request. It was either attack or die mentally, there had been no way out. Years had gone by like this and those memories took up a lot of his recollection, prior to the wound. Now she wondered what to say to him if he asked.
Harsh sobbing first alerted her to where he was. He had never been much for showing emotion unless it came with no warning, which she assumed this had. Yet the crying awoke a feeling in her that Finca thought had all but vanished once Amia had fused the three souls into one body: a sense of parenting. Tamli had never been a rowdy child, even in his early teen years before falling head over heels for Nethial Asburo. He had acted on guarded instinct, often asking for her advice before heading into a dangerous fight. That changed once he met Nethial. Although hardened from the rigorous training Makiar put them through, in addition to the training at the Chamber, he had grown more closed off, even to her. It had been the night before he would leave her life for over a thousand years that he finally admitted to shutting her out of his life and focusing his entire attention on his humanly love.
Finca sighed, coming to stop as she recalled his pained voice as he told her all the wrongs he had done. There was one error out of all that he had asked her counsel on, one that pained her even now to think about it. He had slept with Nethial on several nights but never had he admitted to actually making love to her, until the tell-all before his disappearance. Through his deep connection to the power of aura, his own trusted source of information to all that went on, he learned that one such love-making night had been successful in more ways than one. He had gotten Nethial pregnant, with a son no less. How he knew the gender even then, she had never known but trusted him that the information was correct. It was his last request to her, that she watch over the girl and, furthermore, watch over the boy once he was born.
Oh, she had failed at that simple task. It had been easy at first, while Nethial had still been pregnant. Telling Attor, Nethial's dragon, hadn't been easy but Finca had accomplished it. Once the child was born and she was gifted with seeing it, then things went downhill. It was a boy, as Tamli had predicted, but it bore a likeness to him that left no room for discussion. All the child had gotten from Nethial were high cheekbones, black hair, and a sour disposition, everything else came from its father. The violent purple eyes and blackened hair framed an untamable face, that much the child was during its early months. Once it began walking, Finca left, unable to cope with seeing a near copy of her own possibly dead rider every day.
She regretted it later upon finding out that Nethial had turned herself to the power of Corruption for strength. Mirage had told her through her dreams of the struggle for power and the plight of the Atlantean people once the green stones arrived, having stayed behind to keep an eye on the younger dragonets. Finca often wondered about the child. Whether it had grown up and taken a position of power as had his father or became a spokesperson for the darkness of Corruption as now Nethial had become due to the length of time since her bodily death. There was little she could change about the past anymore, it failed to concern her completely as opposed to how Amia had been until his death once Nor'ac had died. It was almost gladdening to hear that he was dead, hopefully for real.
Snorting, Finca let a quick burst of smoke escape her nostrils. Now was not the time to be in the past. Tamli needed her right now, from the sound of his sobbing. Determination swept into her gaze as she walked with all the speed she could to her lover and mate, pushing past anything that even remotely got in her way. Nothing would keep them separated any longer if she had anything to say about it.
Tamli wrestled control back over himself once he felt the familiar energy of Finca coming near him. His wounds burned with pain, yet somehow he stood and managed a faint smile as her frame tore its way into the room with him. It was hard keeping his emotions buried under the layers of calmness he tried to project while he knew she could sense his thoughts and his mood swings.
A low growl rippled from her and he reached up to grasp his head. Fragments of thoughts seared their way into him, imprinting dark days of seclusion and hundreds of dragons and humans alike burned by his very fingers, out of which came white hot energy that crushed the life force right out of them. It reminded him of the place Amia had brought him to in order to end his life. Dragonsbane had told him that the hardened man had planned to kill him where the first clone began its life, a thought that still sent chills through his body. He had come to the razor thin edge of death and survived, not many managed that much and lived to see another day.
Don't move, Finca growled as smoke rose from her nostrils. Dhran will heal within hours due to what Makiar gave him of the bottle. I held onto a small portion for you.
Dhran's wounds paled in comparison to his own, Tamli realized as Finca halted before him and opened her jaws, breathing out hot air with the remainder of the healing medicine. Specks of red landed on his body, reminding him of blood but he ignored the thought and focused on her gaze. An unnatural warmth passed through him and the dragoness flicked her tail, obviously waiting for the liquid to work.
The sound of a bone cracking sent a spasm of pain through him, enough to finally cripple what remained of his self-will. Tamli felt his body collapse, heard his own head smack the floor with strong force before he realized what had occurred. For whatever reason, the medicine brought out a strong reaction from his body, probably due to what he had just been through with Amia hours before. Finca roared, although the sound seemed from far away, and he fought to stay linked to her thoughts. The effort was futile and he felt himself drifting away from her, away from the only thing that kept him grounded in the belief that he would get his memory back eventually . . .
Makiar snorted for the third time since Finca had given Dhran some red liquid from some bottle that Tamli had gotten while he had been gone. She didn't care to ask questions so long as that human got quiet, which he had since the medicine had been injected into his bloodstream. A slow mummer rose from the unconscious human beside her and the red dragoness fought the temptation to raise her tail and slap it down next to his face. It would do her no good, other than relieve some tension from her over nothing.
Finally the human quieted back down and Makiar noticed that the red aura surrounding him since she had brought him in to save his life had vanished. So there was a limit to how long Sitedal's Fear Shriek could hold an enemy in its grip, that was good to know. She planned to speak with him on it later, when she wasn't so ticked off that he had nearly killed the very two dragons he had told her he would never turn on. Loyalties were broken very easily these days since Arxa had come into power.
Makiar! The shriek from Finca immediately broke her concentration, causing some worry. Almost never had the white dragoness used that tone with her, except in rare cases. Either way, it would certainly quell some of her rage.
What is it Finca?
Finca's voice quivered, the sign that Makiar knew meant something was horribly wrong. It's . . . Help me!
Where are you? I'll come if you need me . . .
No. Stay there. I will bring him . . . as quickly as I can, Finca hissed, the mix of shock and worry in her tone clearly heard by the red dragon.
Her words suggested there was something wrong with Tamli. After a quick argument on the subject of going back for him, Finca had walked out, gorging deep claw marks into the sides of the walls just to show off her anger. Makiar wondered how much rage the tormented dragoness could hold inside. The amnesia of her mate and former rider certainly was an irritant, along with other things. Hopefully there would be no one around when that anger reached a breaking point and the female snapped. It wasn't pleasant to be either the victim or the one doing the damage, that much Makiar knew from experience as an empath.
Moments later, Finca entered, dragging an unconscious Tamli behind her. Rage shimmered in the white female's eyes and Makiar reminded herself of the idea to be far away when the string to sanity that Finca still had snapped. The red dragon glanced over at Tamli, surprised to find that blood covered most of his right arm, even though a temporary bandage had been put into place, the entire shoulder blade missing from its socket. There was also a deep wound to his left leg at the kneecap, despite also having cloth layered over it to lessen the blood loss, leaving the knee barely visible under the slick sticky substance.
Immediately she went to work, having Finca lay him on a table next to Dhran, taking special care around both wounds. He should be dead by the amount of blood he had lost, Makiar realized with a start as her eyes scanned his broken body. He was as much a part of her as Finca was, considering the former had been the rider of the latter, who she was mentally thrown into by older dragons that thought they were doing right. Losing him would be . . . devastating to both of them and to all the others.
How did he react to the drug? She asked as Finca kept her eyes on his motionless face.
I thought well until he collapsed. It happened so suddenly I had no time to prepare or catch him. His head smacked the floor and I hate to think what that might have done to his . . .
Brain? I wonder as well, Makiar added as she focused her mind on his consciousness, hoping to bring him back through mental means.
It felt odd to her to be doing such a thing for Tamli. Yet, he had been the one who had sought out her during his dying days to give Finca some peace. Makiar commendedhim for that much while other things tore away at the accomplishment. Killing Kesar had been one thing that had aggravated her. The poor dragon had only been trying to help Verdra when Tamli had come and snapped, resorting to the power of the darkness to defeat the weakened beast. No signs of the amnesic human could she locate and a low snarl escaped her restraint, providing enough of a signal for Finca.
Makiar, she snarled, drawing the dragoness away from trying to locate Tamli's thoughts and call him back to life.What is it? You cringe like a newborn eaglet at the first jump that will begin his mastery over the sky. Speak your mind, friend.
She relaxed, realizing the tensed state of her body. A sigh escaped her and her gaze turned to Finca. The dragoness wouldn't like the news very well she assumed. At least it was some news after what happened with Verdra and now Aurelia's pregnancy. Some information was better than none, either way one looked at things.
I cannot locate him. Either he blocks my attempts or . . . Makiar broke off, unwilling to say the words that might lead to her death if Finca got angry enough.
The low rippling growl that resounded from Finca confirmed those thoughts and Makiar took a step back. Fresh blood oozed out of the place where Tamli's shoulder should have been and the red dragoness turned to busy herself with wrapping it tighter so the bleeding would stop. Removing the already bloodied cloth that had held until now and then wrapping the wounds in new bandages, she paused after finishing his shoulder, levitating the same ball of cloth used to dress Dhran's wounds as she had heard nothing come from Finca since the initial outburst.
Treat him, Finca hissed softly after a moment had passed, the sound more like a fierce snarl. I will be back, not before nightfall though.
Of course, Makiar agreed, turning so that she could see Finca, only to find that the dragoness had already left.