The Name of All Things (A Chorus of Dragons #2)

by Jenn Lyons

grinned. “Perfect. Then we have a lot of work ahead of us. We’re going to steal a rebellion.”

I could gain everything I wanted by betraying everything I was.

When opposing forces collide, they define each other. You cannot advance against an enemy without letting them shape you. You push, and you’re pushed against. You measure yourself against others, by their approval or by their displeasure, and every time you will find you have given them power over you, whether you realize it or not.”

Var chuckled. “I don’t play so small, dear Qown. Let the Iron Circle—Gadrith and Darzin and all those weak-minded folk—think this is about overthrowing Quur and its High Council. The real stakes are larger than they can comprehend.”

But I have lived too long and seen too much to let any single person’s moral failures or bad choices stop me. What we’re trying to do is more important.”

wives,” I snapped. “Back before the Quuros Empire,” Senera explained, “many years before the Quuros Empire, there were four immortal races: the voras, the voramer, the vorfelane, and the vordredd. Each race except for the vorfelane has been forced to give up its immortality in order to keep Vol Karoth imprisoned. The voras were the first; they became human.”

“That’s why you deny her, why you deny her gifts. She had nothing to give you when you needed her protection, and so now you would deny her the satisfaction of knowing any talent of yours stems from her.”

When people pull down their idols, they never hesitate to put themselves on those same pedestals.”

How do you kill a legend?

“Yes,” Relos Var said. “And if it were any other sword, I could just ask the Name of All Things to tell me its location. Which is a pity, because we’ll need it soon.” “Why?” Relos Var laughed in surprise as he stood. “Because its other name is Godslayer, dear boy. And we are, after all, going to kill gods.”

“What gave it away?” Kihrin asked. Ninavis and Janel shared a look before the latter waved a hand. “No, no, that would be jumping almost to the end. There’s a few more pieces of this story to tell first or it wouldn’t make sense.” Qown flipped to a new section of his journal. “We’re almost finished, anyway.”

“I like that idea. Let’s do that together. Then how would you feel about letting your mother help you fight a dragon? Just us?”

“We’ve killed dragons before, Janel. They recover. They heal. Just like we do. You can’t kill any of the Eight. We just won’t stay dead. And you can’t kill a dragon. They just won’t stay dead either.”

“If all the dragons are children of the Eight Immortals. I mean, I spent four years stranded on Thaena’s sacred island because her dragon son, Sharanakal, didn’t want me to leave.

“It changes things,” Kihrin said. He remembered comments from both Relos Var and the dragon Sharanakal. They’d recognized him not from his physical appearance, but by the “color” of his soul. If all dragons shared such an ability, then Aeyan’arric might well recognize him.

“Someone’s finally done it. Fulfilled one of the prophecies. Destroyed the Stone of Shackles. That means someone’s found Godslayer—Urthaenriel. And so, all gaeshe have been broken, just as predicted.”

Kihrin knew cons. He knew scams. His adoptive mother, Ola, had been fond of them. So he wanted to see if Relos Var’s story would change from what he’d told the others; he also wanted to see how the story didn’t change.

Relos Var pressed his lips together. “The only way you can permanently destroy a dragon—much as the only way you can permanently destroy their corresponding Cornerstone—is to annihilate both simultaneously. Every dragon has a matching Cornerstone. Unfortunately, while dragons can be slain in a variety of ways, the only method I know to destroy a Cornerstone is Urthaenriel. You can understand why I never bothered telling Duke Kaen where Morios laired; until we had Urthaenriel in our possession, fighting the dragon would have been futile.”

“Oh, you did,” Relos Var replied, “but it won’t stay broken. The Stone of Shackles will reform, and eventually, people will realize gaeshing is once again possible. Too late to put the demons back in their cages, unfortunately.”

The wizard only ever helped when his goals temporarily aligned with others. Var wanted to see some Hellwarrior-related prophecy fulfilled—helped along by Janel overthrowing Duke Xun, by killing Morios. The population would interpret her victory over the dragon as proof of her right to rule them. Which put her one step closer to smashing the empire. And that was what Relos Var wanted. As always, he played the long game.

Steel and iron, drussian and shanathá—every metal, a thousand metals, all twisted together in sharp swordlike tangles to form the dragon’s body. It resembled a porcupine warped into nightmare, formed by an insane and malevolent god. Morios’s wings seemed less like tools for flying than weapons to scour and excoriate, lash and annihilate. Nothing about the dragon spoke to any purpose other than slaughter and mayhem.

“Hurry!” Janel yelled. “You have ridden before, haven’t you?” “Oh yeah, riding lessons every day when I was growing up in the slums of the Capital City.” Kihrin made a face. “Of course I’ve never ridden!” Janel grinned. “Good thing you just need to hang on.”

He looked over in time to see Relos Var summon a horse out of thin air, a creature of smoke and darkness that looked ephemeral but held his weight perfectly. “Show-off,” Kihrin muttered.

Every person who participated in that ritual to create Vol Karoth was turned into a dragon, including you. So you’re more than capable of distracting Morios, until we can evacuate. Then we’ll talk about killing the damn creature.”

Thurvishar blinked and then shook his head. “It’s really a pity he can’t be on our side all the time.” “Yeah, if only human life held any value to him … He’d be great.”

“This way. We have maps and battle plans and wizards from the Academy to ignore—all the amenities.”

Kihrin felt himself grow a little jealous. He missed being able to see past the First Veil, but Urthaenriel hadn’t changed her mind about allowing him to use magic. Of course, Kihrin had his own way of discerning magic. For instance, Urthaenriel continued to scream at him for allowing not just one, but two, Cornerstones within proximity. One near Qown and another near the throne.

“Tell your men to begin when ready. Start with dragon fire.” “Dragon fire?” Tyentso said. “Coincidentally enough, we call it that, yes,” Milligreest admitted.

“Aw, come back, little girl. We’re not done playing.” “I’m so glad I’ve made a good impression,” Janel said, feeling hysterical.

Kihrin had speculated the dragons might all be children of the Eight, but what if it wasn’t so specific? Relos Var himself didn’t qualify, for example. He was Kihrin’s brother. So they weren’t children necessarily, but relatives of some sort. Children, parents, sisters … brothers. What if, on some level, dragons still remembered that familial connection?

The God of Destruction said, “Of course nothing is working. My brother is the personification of war, battle’s avatar. Combat makes him stronger. Relos Var should have told you.”

“The worst part is those things I just mentioned are not the worst part. Every living creature on either side of the Veil will be destroyed long before Vol Karoth sates his hunger. The worst thing isn’t Vol Karoth and it isn’t the demon hordes—it’s a flaw in the universe. And every minute and every second, that flaw grows a little larger. It won’t stop until our entire universe is ripped apart. And that is our real enemy.”

Relos Var looked down at Kihrin’s prone body. “Ah, little brother. You should have listened to your instincts. The mistake you and Janel made—even after you knew I controlled Aeyan’arric—was being unable to imagine why someone would unleash a dragon—and then show you how to kill him. You couldn’t imagine anyone using a dragon as bait.”

“The Eight Immortals may be far more powerful than the god-kings, but they aren’t omnipotent. Each time some poor fool dies in a Hellmarch, the demons become stronger and more numerous. But what scares demons more than gods or god-kings? Vol Karoth, whose unending hunger is sated just as well by demons as by any other kind of soul. The demons will hide now. They’ll retreat. Hopefully for long enough so we may do what we must.”

Xivan Kaen had never been fooled by Relos Var’s overtures of friendship to her husband. She knew a puppeteer when she saw one.