Amazonia - City of Ghosts

In this city of ghosts, I've found my new home.

The shambling dead can't tell the difference between rich and poor, while my Shadow self only cared that the rich had stronger bodies and more guards who knew how to fight. So when the Shamblers reached the elite section of Amul, they ravaged it like army ants on the march.

Including the wine shop I'm now occupying. It's good sized and made of stone, designed to resemble a caravansary with individual rooms open to the inner corridor. But the walls have expensive tapestries hung on all of them, and their tables are made of dark wood, so polished I can see a muddled reflection of myself in the shine. The shelves have drinking cups made of real glass, while the hand woven carpets on the floors hush any and all sounds.

The blood stains on the carpets are new. Once the city had been decimated with the survivors fleeing out the western gate carrying whatever they could, the Shamblers dragged off the corpses to either be reanimated, or piled in heaps inside the city squares and parks. Hyenas with black stripes are already slinking in through the open gates to feed, while the air's black from vulture wings. The coppery smell of blood mingles with the greasy stink from the fires still burning in the poorer sections.

But other than several overturned tables and the bloodstains near the front door, the wine shop came through unscathed. When I walked through the front door, the five Xian mercenaries behind me, we searched the place until one of them... Chang, I think his name is, found the stairs leading down to the wine cellar. I went for the dustiest bottles near the back and cracked one of them open. After one taste, we pulled every one of them out, leaving the cheaper stuff, and carried them upstairs. Then we seated ourselves around the most exclusive table and toasted our success using the most expensive glasses we could find.

Now, two of the mercenaries are passed out while the other three are softly singing about the Xian empire, back in the days when Lady Sword-son led a rebellion against an evil emperor. Or so Chang told me. I lift my head from my cup as bells above the front door chime, the sound of familiar female voices wafting down the corridor growing louder as I take another sip. They pause, and a moment later Kax, with white haired Snow behind her, enter our open room. "When I asked Karl where you might be," Kax says, "he told me to find the best wine shop in the elite's quarter." She raises her flame haired eyebrows. "Is this where you plan to stay while we are in Amul?"

I shrug. "Why not? You don't need me until it's time to send the Shamblers out to ravage the countryside, and replenishing the ranks will take days, if not a week or two. When it's time," I added, patting the weapon beside me, "the Rune sword will change me back to my Shadow self. But until then I'm staying right here."

The three mercenaries have broken off their song to listen as Snow frowns. "Why would you want to spend your time here, getting drunk?"

"Memories," Kax says before I can come up with a response. She looks at Snow. "I was still young when the Prince's war ended, but I remember the stories told about the one Shadow Knight brought back from the dead, more or less. He remembered every single thing his Shadow self had done, and it haunted him." Kax turns and gazes down at me. "Do they haunt you as well?"

Every child torn screaming from their mother's arms, every mother ripped apart and their entrails draped over dead shoulders to make them appear more frightening, every father and older son pulled down and their throats torn out so we'd have more sturdy Shamblers... yes, they haunt me. They'll haunt me for the rest of my life. But I'll never admit that to anyone, especially not to you. I shrug again as I take a sip of wine. "I've been a gladiator most of my life, and I've seen people die in more ways than you can imagine. You get used to it."

Kax gives me a knowing look as the white haired mage shivers. "From the little we saw last night, I don't think I could ever get used to that." She gives me a slight bow. "Apologies if I seemed critical."

I wave my hand towards the sealed bottles on the other end of the table. "Accepted. Since you're both here, join us if you want." I pick up the open bottle, the other empty ones on the carpeted floor next to the passed out mercenaries, and hold it up. "I don't know where it's from, but wherever they got this wine, it's good."

Kax takes the bottle and puts her nose over the opening. "This is better wine than Muzen enjoyed in Tesiphon. Snow, retrieve a pair of clean glasses and I will pour." Snow hurries over to the shelf and grabs a couple of the heavy green glasses as Kax sits close to me, then returns and sets them down. Kax pours red wine into both as Snow pulls a cushion until it's up against Kax's, and sits herself.

Kax puts a possessive arm around Snow as they both drink. "I have never heard of a woman becoming a gladiator," Kax says as she sets her glass down. "How did that happen?"

I tell her the story of killing my would-be rapists, how my master decided to let me fight in the arena as a novelty for the crowd, and how Lord Paulus gave me the chance to become a champion. When I finish, I ask, "What about you? How's it possible for a child to be born as two separate people who can merge into a single one?"

Kax finishes the wine in her glass and Snow refills it as Kax settles back. "A side effect of an enormous device my father built. I was born on an island... I suppose it might actually qualify as a very small continent, off the Iberian coast. The island was called Mu."

"Mu?" I frowned. "I've never heard of such a place."

"That is because Mu no longer exists. Mu was a refuge for my race, a land the Daemo did not know about, where Celestials could heal after taking grievous wounds, or get away from the war for a while and rest." Kax grimaces. "It was also a place where our Lore-masters could try out new spells and devices."

"Your father was one of them?"

Kax takes a swallow of wine and looks past me. "One of our best. He was brilliant, unorthodox, willing to take dangerous chances if it meant finding a way to win the war." She looks at me and her gaze turns sharp. "He was the Lore-master who developed ghost-glass."

I finish my wine and set the glass down. "What is ghost-glass, anyway?"

"Intelligent, living glass," Kax says with a sardonic smile, "if you can believe it."

I put my glass down. "You're having a jest with me. I've handled the ghost-glass amulet, and it doesn't do anything except reflect images that can talk."

"That is because you do not understand it," Kax replies. "Ghost-glass feeds off mana and nothing else. When none is available, or if it senses a non-mage is nearby, it goes into a form of hibernation and becomes hard as normal glass. However, it becomes pliant when it is being handled by a mage feeding it mana."

I blink as a memory surfaces. "Prince Varsena mentioned something similar when he told us about creating the amulets. He was using old lore passed down among the wise women and mages for generations, yet he said as he was crafting the amulet, it was almost like the ghost-glass was trying to help him."

"In a sense it was."

I nod, digesting this new bit of knowledge. "You were telling me about Mu."

"And why I am two people in one body." Kax looks down at her wine cup. "Father built a massive device that magnified the natural mana node located in a dormant volcano... well, a super volcano, actually. The device worked exceedingly well, but somehow distorted the mana, changing it, so when Celestials came to Mu with the intention of conceiving a child, they wound up with twins... in a sense." Kax chuckles. "Even my father admitted he was surprised when the effect began."

Her smile fades away as Kax looks past me once more. "Mu was a paradise until the Daemo discovered it existed, and planned to invade."

"Did the Daemo princes destroy Mu?"

Kax shakes her head without looking at me. "Oh no, my elders managed to destroy Mu themselves." Her gaze returns to me. "Let me go back a bit. How much do you know about the Rainbow Dragon?"

I shrug. "Only that it was part Celestial, part Daemo, and entirely insane."

"No, not entirely. The Rainbow Dragon had times when she was lucid, and during one of them, came to my father and pleaded with him to keep her locked up so she would not hurt any more of our people. Father agreed, and had her try a spell he had developed specific to those of our race who were dragons."

I snort. "I'll believe in dragons when I actually see one."

Kax's sardonic smile returns. "Just hope you are not on her bad side when you do. Anyway, father had developed a spell allowing a dragon to take a portion of itself and become human sized-"

"What, he shrunk the dragon?"

It's Kax's turn to snort. "Were that it was so easy. A mage cannot make a creature larger or smaller than it is; for example, if I was able to transform you into a mouse, you would be a rodent the size you are now. However, if I could take small bits of you and blend them together into the shape of a mouse, your body would transform into a living statue and you would be a mouse-sized mouse."

I frown, trying to understand what she's saying. "Say this were true. Would I be as smart as I am now?"

Kax shakes her head. "You would be the smartest mouse that ever existed, but no more. So it was with the Rainbow Dragon. She used the spell father taught her to transform into a human-sized female with multi-colored hair, while her dragon body became a living statue."

Sitting on Kax's other side, Snow says, "My lady, you've never shared this story before. Did you actually see the Rainbow Dragon?"

Kax turns her head to look at Snow. "All the children secretly watched the process unfold. The Rainbow Dragon was magnificent, close to a hundred feet in length, with scales that glowed from the magic they contained within them. As she cast the spell upon herself, her dragon body froze in place as her chest bubbled like the spawning pits of the Underworld are supposed to. Then a short, slender, nude female stepped out." Kax chuckles as she ruffles Snow's hair. "I fell in love with her on the spot."

"I'm jealous."

Kax raises her eyebrows as she smiles at Snow. "I know better. Anyway," her gaze returning to me, "we children became her companions, humoring her when the madness returned." Her smile fades. "It saved our lives. The spell was dangerous in that if the smaller person was wounded and did not return to the dragon in time to be reabsorbed, the dragon would die. As she would if the smaller person was killed outright."

In a quiet voice, Snow says, "Meaning your father could've eliminated the threat the Rainbow Dragon posed to your people, if he'd wanted to."

"He knew that. But he also knew if he could cure her madness, she would become the key to ending the war." Kax sighs. "Had it not been for the invasion, it might have worked, for her lucid periods were growing longer and longer. She was doing so well that father let us take her to the beach, many leagues away from the city, by way of a flying wagon."

I give her an incredulous look. "A flying wagon?"

"No human language has the right words to describe the devices we once had. Anyway, as we frolicked, purple sails appeared on the horizon, hundreds of them, and in our panic, we left the dragon's smaller self behind."

"I assume they killed her?"

"Not long after the first of their ships reached our shores." Kax's voice grows sharp. "You have fought Daemo in the arena. Tell me what happens when they die."

I shrug. "Turn into slime and return to the bubbling spawning pits in the Under-" It hits me. "Bells of Hades, you said the dragon's chest bubbled."

Kax nods. "The Rainbow Dragon became her own spawning pit, in a sense. However, everyone thought she was dead until our parents packed us onto a larger wagon that took off right as the Rainbow Dragon rose out of the place she had been kept. As the wagon tried to escape, she caught us between her clawed hands like you might catch a butterfly, and looked deep into our horrified faces. Then she let us go."

Snow and I both let out the breath we'd been holding. "What happened then?" She asked.

"The Rainbow Dragon either tampered with father's mana device or cast some great spell, because as the last of the Daemo ships unloaded their armies, the volcano erupted. My people had built most of the city underground in vast chambers, so they could keep the surface as pristine as possible, and the eruption caused the chambers to collapse and the island to sink beneath the waves. The last thing we saw was the Rainbow Dragon attacking whatever ships had survived, Daemo or Celestial, that were trying to escape." Kax sighs. "We children were the only ones who lived through the disaster."

Snow bows her head as I say, "Condolences."

"Gratitude," Kax replies. "Actually, father was right; the Rainbow Dragon did end the war. Both sides lost so much, especially the Daemo losing all but the last Prince, that they called a truce and combined forces to kill the Rainbow Dragon."

"Rainbow Dragon not dead," Chang says, slurring his words. "Lives as woman in Forbidden Palace inside Xian capitol."

The other two nod owlishly as Kax's expression turns sardonic. "I have heard this ridiculous legend as well." She glances down at my glass. "It seems you are in need of a refill."

I frown down at it as my stomach rumbles. "I should get myself some breakfast first."

As I start to rise, Kax waves me down as she stands. "Stay there. I will see what is in the cupboards, and fix something for us all."

I stare up at her in surprise. "You cook?"

"My lady's an excellent cook," Snow snaps at me as she rises herself. "Muzen may betray those who wait upon him, but my lady takes care of her people."

Kax gives her a tolerant smile as I say, "unless I miss my guess, Muzen and Yun don't let you be yourself too much. What's going to happen if, when the Sasnayams are conquered, you decide you don't want to be bottled up anymore?"

Kax stops as her expression grows serious. "You know, I ask myself that question every day."