Read Online Dagger - The Light at the End of the World by Walt Popester - Free Book Online Page B

They were just men who
played at being gods, which was the crux of the matter. Charged
with responsibility, no one could ask a man to never do the wrong
thing, to always be fit for the situation, even when he held, in
his trembling hands, the fate of the entire world.
    “ Hammoth,” he said. “My
friend. What is done is dead. Now his son is in this world and we
can only hide him. If nothing else, at least now Skyrgal and the
child are in our hands and not in Gorgors.’ If they want to come
and get them, we’ll be here waiting, armed to the teeth as has
always been in our glorious history. We’ll face any attack, the
example of Crowley’s end will not be lost. Leave it to me. Leave at
least this burden on me. You’re not the only one who has killed
Guardians for the common good. I’m still the Delta Dracon you
remember.”
Hammoth remained silent for a while. Then
he answered in a way that Marduk would have never expected. He
laughed. A dark, drunken laugh. He stood up and threw a bottle
against the wall.
    “ Crowley is still alive!” he
shouted. He put his head in his hands and shouted again, “Our old
Pendracon is still out there! He survived the soul of Kam Karkenos
and… and…!”
He laughed again. Marduk felt a deep pain,
the pain of a child who saw his father become weak and unreliable
just when he most needed him. He left the room and the tower behind
him, marching fast on the bridge. He went into his tower and
climbed the stairs to the top floor.
Aniah was there, where he had left her,
sitting on a stool in front of the fireplace with the sleeping baby
in her arms. “I managed to put him to sleep,” she said as soon as
he heard him enter. “He was tired. Be quiet.”
    “ You’re leaving!” Marduk
said, slamming the door. “Tonight!”
She continued to rock the child, staring
into void, chanting softly. The Dracon leaned back against the
wall, watching her in the gloom. Now that she had changed her
clothes, she had a dignified look. Her amaranth tunic of wool,
typical of the Delta, hid the best qualities of her body. The
darkness in her eyes, however, still blinded who was forced to
watch it. Especially those who, like him, had once seen those eyes
full of light, childish and happy to be alive.
    Time passes and everything
changes, he thought. And it is a huge
shit .
    “ Aniah—”
    “ What fate has been given
me?” the woman asked. “Why must I feel… this pain?”
The Dracon stepped forward and forced her
to look at him. He saw her eyes red with tears and he felt
compassion. “We cannot rewrite the past. We can only make up for
what you did,” he said. “If we can’t kill his son, we will hide
him!”
    “ And where are we supposed
to hide him? He’s not safe here at the Fortress?”
Marduk shook his head. “Why do you ask,
when you know the answer better than I? You’ve been with Gorgors.
You know that their hand moves in here too. If what you say is
true, they are getting ready for a war they think they have already
won. So we must take him away from here!”
    “ Where?”
Marduk darkened. “We’ll hide his son where
Gorgors could set foot only once they razed the Fortress to the
ground and killed the last one of us!”
She looked aghast. “No. You can’t think of
that hell! How can you—?”
The Dracon stroked the scar on her face,
the scar with which Skyrgal had branded her as a head of cattle.
Then he looked up. Above the fireplace was framed a portrait of
Crowley, his eyes still and solemn. The pain of a memory crossed
his mind:
    ‘ What a fuckin’ expression
you’re making? You look like a fool!’
    ‘ Marduk,
I’m your new Pendracon now. We should check again our way of
speaking in public.’
    ‘ Ah, come on! As children
we used to poo in the same place to make a joke to the same man, I
think I have the right to—’
    ‘ Oh! Don’t start again with
this story!’
    ‘ You look like a jerk.
Besides, this painter is deaf to the bones.’
    ‘ Let him finish