PROLOGUE

The Wanderer

Sleep was an unwelcome presence in the cavern. It tugged at the dragon's drooping eyelids, tempting him to drop his guard and surrender to its influence. The moment the visual stimuli faded, the whispers within his skull would transform into a maelstrom of screams, one that drowned the cries of the wind streaming between the cavern's stalactites. His eyes struggled to stay open as they watched the setting sun paint the skies outside his cavern scarlet. Another night, another tedious wait for silence.

A whistle broke through the monotony of the whispers and strangely enough, it sounded like a songbird's reproduction of a traditional dragon serenade.

Stirring into wakefulness, the dragon saw a light emerging through the cavern's entrance, carving the shadows into animated shapes. The shapes tossed and turned, growing starker and clearer as the light neared his cave chamber.

The dragon's nictitating membranes added a layer of tears to his drying eyes and he noticed a bipedal figure rappelling down the vertical rock wall past the cavern's entrance. A lantern's golden flame flickered in its glass case as it rocked back and forth on the human's hips. From what was visible in the feeble lighting, the human was an adolescent male wearing clothes in the style of the coastal tribes.

The human lowered himself from his rope onto the wet stone floor and stumbled towards the dragon's hidden nest. He puckered his lips and whistled the tune from before— a perfect mimicry of the dragon serenade taught by the dragon to the chief of a human settlement under his protection.

"Lord," called the human in his native tongue, thrusting the swinging lantern forward to illuminate the mouth of the dragon's cave chamber. "Forgive me for intruding upon your peace. I request the pleasure of your presence."

A sudden movement in the human's periphery made him jump back; the dragon quickly pulled his rest of his tail into the chamber. The dragon could see his reflection on the glass casings of the lantern and in the puddles at the human's feet— he was a pair of glinting, slit-pupiled blue eyes enshrouded in darkness.

"You sing beautifully, little bird," said the dragon in the human's language, his voice low, smooth and sonorous. He could see the hairs at the nape of the boy's neck stand up in reverence. "But you are not the human I had taught that tune to. Who might you be?"

"The human you speak of is my father, Milord, I had learnt the tune when I was little," replied the human, swiping away the sweat trickling down his forehead.

"He has taught you well. What brings you to my cave?"

The boy shifted his weight from one leg to the other and looked away from the dragon's eyes to get a glimpse of his reflection in the puddles. He inhaled softly, licked his lips and looked up at the dragon.

"I apologise for being the bearer of bad news, Lord Aleunor. You have been summoned to the Imperial Court by Imperator Aleunor, you are to be put on trial for the desecration of the Thalassine Temple wall."

The dragon's eyes grew wide and his pupils contracted.

"The desecration issue was resolved by my brother when he was the clan head decades ago in my presence. I had apologised and restored the wall as well. Why are they digging up a buried skeleton?"

The human paused and the dragon saw the bobbing of his Adam's apple.

"It was your brother who had issued the summons, my lord. He had sent the Imperial Guard to apprehend you to our village earlier today and had failed to find you. They say that you're a threat to the peace in Thalassus, my lord, and the Court plans to cripple you and throw you into the Iron Maw in Carnelia for five centuries."

The dragon relaxed his glare and his eyelids drooped to cover the upper half of his eyes. A yawn glazed them with a layer of tears.

"Thank you, little bird, it takes a lot of courage to defy a tyrant who is holding your village hostage. They will leave within a fortnight or once they find nothing, do not worry. I hope their stay hasn't been hard on your resources?"

"Sire," he said, his adolescent voice cracking. "I am sorry, I wish I could have been of more help, I wish I was as useful to you as my father was."

"Naive hatchling, do not apologise-"

"Sire," interjected the human, his eyes wide and glassy. "I truly am sorry."

The dragon paused to consider the statement and sensing something lurking at the cave's entrance, decided to look up. Sure enough, a shadow, large and dark, was blocking the moonlight filtering through the mouth.

"I understand, little one," he said, rising from the comfort of his nest, "don't be."

"The human and his village will remain untouched by the Imperial Court following my departure," he stated in dragon tongue.

The vigil descended the rock wall headfirst and touched down on the cave floor with the reptilian grace conferred upon their species by their ancestors. Like all those serving as law enforcers of the land, the vigil had hidden their scent within a cloud of whale-musk and had their scales painted a dull grey.

The dragon noted that the whispers in his head had suddenly gone mum. Silence, his ears were filled with sweet silence for the first time in weeks. He could hear the vigil's talons clicking and scraping against the floor as they neared him, he could hear their wings rubbing against each other on their back over the sound of the human's hastened breaths and the sea breeze. The dripping of water from the stalactites, the distant roar of a waterfall on the other side of the cave system, the gargle of the streams that flowed through the cavern, he could hear it all in clarity.

Then a female hatchling's voice giggled within his head, bristling the mane-scales on his neck and head.

"You are in no position to make demands, Aleunor," said the vigil, bowing her head in greeting and flicking the water off her tail.

"No," exclaimed the dragon, his voice faltering as he retreated into the darkness of his chamber. "No, no, no, not you! Of all the dragon folk on this island. You have to leave, this is not safe."

The vigil's golden eyes shimmered in the sparse moonlight. She lowered her head as she noticed the nervous flaps of the dragon's half-folded wings within his chamber.

"Your sister has asked me to intervene and I want you to come with me."

"You have no idea what you are getting into."

"Spare me the theatricals, we don't want the Imperial guards to know that they had you right under their muzzles."

"You are supposed to be protecting my sister and yourself, Rybon, do you even realise what my brother is capable of now that he is Imperator? My siblings are no longer bound by blood or family bonds and we are all game for him to hunt. Does my sister think that selling me to him would restore her status in his eyes? A risky gamble, you are better off saving yourselves."

The vigil, Rybon laughed and indicated to the human that he better leave by nudging him towards the exit.

"Your brother's not Imperator yet. You Aleunors will have to go into hiding before he rounds you all up for a public execeution during his Coronation ceremony. I'm only here to aid you."

"Do you not understand, mongrel?" spat the dragon, erecting his mane-scales, rearing his head and baring his fangs. His tongue burned with the sting of the venomous slur that dragons of all elements used for their crossbred offspring. Neither the cloud nor air breeds of dragons had let the vigil forget her mixed heritage since her hatching. The slur seemed to have taken an enormous bite out of Rybon's confidence- her eyes narrowed and her pupils contracted.

The dragon needed her to leave no matter how taxing the interaction would be on their relationship. He knew the ears hidden behind the clouds in the night sky to particularly sharp after sunset. To his dismay, the dragon stood her ground and growled.

He continued, "Take me with you and you will be dragged into games far more ruthless than the measly spectacle my brother plans to entertain his guests with on his Coronation day. You will leave immediately."

"For once in your miserable life," began the dragon, "you will see past my bloodline, Aleunor and you will listen to reason. I will drag you out of this cave conscious or not, I do not go back on my promises unlike you purebreds do."

The dragon took a deep breath and lowered his head.

"Stop lying to yourself and see me as who I am right now. Your friend in me was strangled the day my brother decided to raise me, all that remains is a forsaken husk. I shall be put out of my misery when these games end. I do not deserve a second chance. But you, you deserve so much. I... I have loved you all my life regardless of the circumstances of your birth. I have loved you too dearly to see you rot playing their heartless games. Please leave, survive to see another daybreak, have a better life."

"Hesp-"

"No, please don't!" he cried, thrashing his wings against the cave walls and cowering in the darkness. The dragon trying to bridge the gap between them was sent back by a savage hiss.

"They'll-they'll hear you Rybon," he continued, his voice hoarse and subdued.

"I don't- don't know what they'll do to you if they find you. I've never been this scared before, Rybon, please-please leave. I know I have been inexcusably cruel to you but I beg of you, leave. It's not too late, they haven't heard you yet. Leave me."

"Aleunor, please list- Hesperion!" Rybon snapped.

A voice emerged from the silence within his head to repeat her outburst- a placid, sterile female voice.

Hesperion, it said, breathing an eerie chill into him with each syllable of his name, driving his muscles into paralysis.

The chill seeped into his chest and the dragon wheezed and roared, trying to draw air into his unwieldy lungs. The paralysis however had them in a death grip. Darkness began to steal his vision from him, filling his eyes with a great grey void. Shapes made of light frolicked around him, taunting him to attempt an escape. Over the screeches, howls and shouts of his incorporeal tormentors in his ears, he could hear his heartbeat slowing down.

As the spectators relished the sight of the void slowly freezing a cloud dragon, Hesperion watched the mockery it made of him with his birth element.

When he opened his eyes after what felt like an eternity and gasped for air, he saw a sky smothered with white clouds stretching overhead. Snowflakes floated down from the heavens, twirling and dancing with the breeze midair, celebrating their symmetry.

Hesperion exhaled and laid his head and outstretched wings on the layer of thick snow surrounding him. The mountain peaks beyond the one he was on glimmered in the moonlight that managed to filter through, before being obscured by the clouds.

Hesperion's mind went blank and the pleasant coolness of the surrounding frost blanketed his hide. The mountain air smelled of the freshness of the clouds, of the meadows and conifer forests downhill.

A snowflake landed in his right eye and melted, birthing a single tear that ran down his cheek when he blinked.

He had to move lest they found him again.