Two other forms slithered out of the shadows. Blooddrakes. Both large, both in their own scales, not the scales of man. They bowed their snouted heads. Rinkhal and Ialtris were their names.
“Wounded we’ve been, Solanine,” Lu Har said, straightening with a grunt, his face contorting in pain. “Life stolen from us. Betrayed us, she did. That shall not go unpunished. Mother Marrow and Her draconem guardians are dead. The first to fall. Three remain. The daughter of Eminence is still at hand. Find her, we must, the child of Nightingale. Take what is ours. Take what was mine. To Kalderim and the Seal of Aere. Of Aquis lost in the Voidlands.”
The memories of failure raced inside Solanine’s mind. With the remaining claw, the blooddrake stroked the horn over one of their eyes. “How long has the Pit claimed me?”
“Half a year’s turn.”
Could it be so long? It felt like nothing.
“My Imperium has fallen, Solanine, in its place something else grows. This Guild. It is but the worms who worshiped us who have claimed my throne.”
“Am I allowed to finally paint this world in blood as should have been from the beginning?”
Lu Har leaned forward, a quiet contemplation before answering. “I have a gift for you, a set of scales you’ve long since coveted. Bring me the child’s head and you can leave this land swimming in blood. In our master’s name.”
The Fallen motioned toward the cabal of corpse-like oracles. Two shuffled through the rest, carrying something in their deathly grasp, something that resembled a cloak made of leather. But it wasn’t a leather cloak, instead it was the stretched skin of an olive-toned woman with raven hair, a face where the hood might be.
Solanine felt a smile cross their snout. “This is how you repay me in full, Lu Har. Now you give her to me. After making me suffer her training. Bonding her to the Strix. Taking her to your bed.” The blooddrake slithered out of the blood bath toward the scales held in the oracles’ arms, the cruor staining the rough ground in their wake like a slug. Solanine ran their remaining claw over the stretched face. “Mine…”
“We must bide our time, Solanine. The child of Nightingale must come to us.” Lu Har coughed, his withered body convulsing. Weak, yes, that’s what Solanine would call him. They had never seen Lu Har be weak, but the Godsblood had wounded him so. “Work, we have. Our army has been scattered; men are worthless. I must raise the daemon horde. Time it will take me. In the meantime, this Guild must crumble, but more importantly, the Seals remain to us. With these scales, you must bring the Godsblood back to us. I command you to destroy the Guild from within. Rinkhal and Ialtris will join you. Datura is already amongst them in Alizarin. Destroy what hope this world has built. With it will come the child of Nightingale.”
The blooddrake glanced up. “The Seal of Ignis in Oldport Basin?”
“Kalderim is mine. Ignis is yours. You know what power the blood of Nightingale had there. Use it.”
Solanine caressed the set of scales with a claw. “Yes.” But their words were to their Divine, not Lu Har. The elfir had long since overstayed his use, Solanine knew it now. For in the Pit, during their torture, Solanine had heard the truth. Now was their chance.
“BRING ME THE GODSBLOOD,” the voice of the Divine spoke from beyond the veil. “MY LOVE, MY NIGHTINGALE WILL RISE AGAIN.”
Yes, my master.
With a chant of aetheurgy borne of the void, Solanine felt the power of aether. So sweet, so freeing. The claw of Solanine’s left arm disappeared into the set of scales held by the oracles, melding together like a bladesmith forging steel. The oracles pulled the scales’ flesh taut as Solanine dove snout first, worming inside. Aether bloomed as the two worlds collided, a blooddrake stealing the memories and the life of the scales. Everything that was the scales’ former life filled Solanine. Dreams, wishes, loves, memories, failures, achievements. All. Two at the forefront. A husband and a daughter.
Solanine became the scales.
When the chanting was done, Solanine stood taller than their previous scales with the heart-shaped face, wider of hip and smaller of bosom. Black-red blood of a drake dribbled down the olive flesh, over hardened muscles trained by rigid use in the arts of killing, down into the thatch between athletic legs. Though Solanine couldn’t command the humir’s right hand, the blooddrake ran the left through the shoulder-length waves of raven-black, memories of a daughter with white eyes filled the chasm that was Solanine’s now to command.
Cadrianna Nightingale, scourge of the Fallen, daughter of the line of Nightingale, now stood in the flesh reborn. But not the failure that was Cadrianna married to Emre Benld, no, this was Solanine, the blooddrake that would see the world burn.
The blooddrake that would bring the world of Life to the Pit.
Here Ends Passage One of the Divine Godsqueen Coda
The Coda Continues in
Lady Drakeslayer
Appendicis
The Divines
The Divines [dih-vahyns] – The ultimate deities of Life & Death.
Zenith [zee-nith] – The divine of Eminence & the realm of Life. Also known as He Who Fathered the World and the All Father.
Nocturne [nok-turn} – The divine of Noctis & the realm of Death (the Meadows). Also known as the Master of the Pit or the Dark God.
The Pentax Gods [pen-taks gods], also known as the Hatch borne via Nightingale [nahyt-n-geyl] & Zenith:
Mother Marrow [muhth-er mar-oh] – Goddess of the east, guardian terrisvvyrm of the Emerald Shard. Patron goddess of creation, healing, & life, as well to the ingeniators of the Scattered Shards. Associated with Terris. Holy artifact is the Hammer of Mother Marrow. Also known as the Forgemistress of Creation, the Forger of Life.
Justice [juhs-tis] – God of the west, guardian seagandr of the Sapphire Shard. Patron god of peace, law, & war, as well to the vicars of the Scattered Shards. Associated with Aquis. Holy artifact is the Aegis of Justice. Also known as the Arbiter.
Brio [bree-oh] – God of the south, guardian firedrake of the Garnet Shard. Patron god of desire, stimulation, & lust, as well to the quaestors of the Scattered Shards. Associated with Ignis. Holy artifact is the Mantle of Brio. Also known as the Wayward Son, the Drunk God.
Bliss [blis] – Goddess of the north, guardian aerovern of the Peridot Shard. Patron goddess of purity, order, & time, as well to the augurs of the Scattered Shards. Associated with Aere. Holy artifact is the Crown of Bliss. Also known as the Ideal Daughter, the Virtuous One.
The Orders of Draconem
Draconem [drey-koh-nem] – Greater & lesser orders of drakes.
Firedrake [fahyuhr-dreyk] – Greater order. The smartest, as well as the cruelest, grand of size, & notoriously violent. As such, these savage beasts tend to lair on fiery peaks far from the races of man. Their scales are near impossible to breach, thus are used in body armor manufacturing.
Seagandr [see-guhn-dyr] – Greater order. The bane of every sailor, for they possess multiple heads & rise from their gloomy depths only when cargo ships are bulging with drake essence or aethecite. Their oil offers an alternative fuel source to aethecite, as well as a suitable machine grease.
